🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Dietary studies portray the leopard cat as a generalist predator with a strong reliance on small rodents, supplemented by birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and insects. This overview synthesizes scat…

Leopard cats are efficient predators of rodents and other small prey, and in agricultural mosaics they may provide pest-suppression services that benefit farmers. This overview synthesises scat and pr…

The leopard cat is the most widespread small cat in Asia, ranging from the Russian Far East and Korea through China, the Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia to the islands of Sundaland and the Phi…

The leopard cat is the wild ancestor of the domestic Bengal cat breed, and this overview reviews the biology and conservation implications of that connection. Hybridization between leopard cats and do…

The leopard cat has colonized many islands across its range, giving rise to distinct populations and subspecies, and this overview reviews their biology and significance. Island forms, including those…

Although all modern house cats descend from the Near Eastern wildcat, archaeological cats at early Chinese farming villages were later identified as leopard cats, a different genus-level relative. Thi…

The leopard cat is notably tolerant of agricultural landscapes, and this overview reviews research on these populations. Camera-trap and telemetry studies document the species using plantations, rice…

Taiwan leopard cat population persists almost entirely outside protected areas, in a patchwork of low-elevation farmland, betel-nut and fruit orchards, secondary forest and rural settlements in Miaoli…

This overview examines human-leopard conflict in Sri Lanka, home to an endemic leopard subspecies that ranges across tea estates, scrub, and forest mosaics. It synthesises evidence on the leading thre…

This overview synthesises camera-trap and telemetry studies estimating leopard abundance, density, and movement within Sanjay Gandhi National Park, a forested island surrounded by metropolitan Mumbai.…

Leopards are among the most frequently camera-trapped big cats, their rosette patterns enabling robust individual identification across an enormous range spanning Africa and Asia. This overview survey…

Sanjay Gandhi National Park is a roughly hundred-square-kilometre forest island embedded within metropolitan Mumbai, hosting one of the highest known leopard densities recorded near a megacity. This o…

A survey of the leopard's exceptionally broad diet, the widest of any large felid, which lets it occupy more habitats than any other big cat. Leopards eat dozens to over a hundred prey species across…

Leopard home-range size and density vary enormously, reflecting the species' adaptability. This overview synthesizes telemetry and camera-trap studies showing that leopards occupy small territories at…

A survey of how the depletion of wild prey drives leopards to kill domestic livestock, fueling conflict that is a leading threat to the species. Across Africa and Asia, leopards persisting near people…

This overview synthesises studies of leopard predation on livestock across South and Central Asia, examining which species and age classes are most vulnerable, where and when attacks occur, and how hu…

Leopards often survive in small habitat fragments and human-dominated mosaics where other big cats vanish, but fragmentation still imposes costs. This overview synthesizes research on how leopard popu…

An overview of the significant and well-documented role of leopards as predators of primates, from monkeys to apes, and the evolutionary consequences for primate behavior. Leopards are major predators…

The leopard is among the most adaptable big cats, occupying habitats from rainforest to desert to urban edges, yet it has still lost much of its historical range to habitat loss and conflict. This ove…

This overview examines the frequent incidents of leopards falling into open agricultural wells across western India and the rescue operations that follow, which serve as flashpoints of human-leopard i…

Leopards are assessed both as a species and at the subspecies level, and the consolidation of subspecies by genetics directly affects conservation prioritization. This overview explains how recognizin…

An overview of how leopards coexist with dominant tigers in Asian forests by partitioning prey size, space and activity. Where tigers are abundant, leopards tend to take smaller prey, shift toward are…

Across India, leopards occupy a continuum from forest reserves to intensively farmed countryside, with sugarcane, tea and other tall-crop landscapes functioning as year-round habitat. This overview sy…

Leopards are remarkable among big cats for persisting in close proximity to dense human populations, including the edges of major cities. This overview synthesizes research, notably from India, on how…

In the rainforests of Central Africa and Southeast Asia, leopards occupy a very different niche from savanna populations. This overview synthesizes research on forest leopards, which hunt primates, du…

In the arid Kalahari, leopards survive with little surface water across vast, sparsely vegetated terrain. This overview synthesizes long-term observations of desert leopards showing how they range ove…

Beyond the well-established senses, cats are sometimes credited with additional perceptual abilities whose evidence is limited or debated. This overview surveys lesser-known and disputed feline sensor…

Managing free-roaming cats pits welfare, ethical and conservation considerations against one another, and this overview surveys the debate between lethal control and non-lethal approaches like trap-ne…

Modern guidance frames FIV as a manageable chronic infection rather than a death sentence. Recommendations center on keeping infected cats indoors to prevent spread and reduce exposure to pathogens, n…

Beyond habitat loss, human landscapes emit pervasive light and noise, and this overview examines their effects on the movement and activity of cats. Artificial light at night can alter the cover-depen…