🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

The cheetah is famous for sounding unlike other big cats, and this overview reviews its distinctive vocalisations. Rather than roaring, cheetahs produce bird-like chirps, churrs, and a range of high-p…

A devastating outbreak of feline infectious peritonitis in a captive cheetah facility, with mortality far exceeding that seen in domestic cats, became a landmark case linking genetic uniformity to dis…

Cheetahs are famous for their exceptionally low genetic diversity, the legacy of one or more ancient population bottlenecks. This overview synthesizes research documenting the species' remarkable gene…

The Asiatic cheetah survives only in Iran, reduced to a few dozen individuals, the last remnant of a subspecies that once ranged across southwest Asia and India. This overview surveys genetic studies…

The tabby patterns of cats, mackerel stripes versus blotched swirls, arise from the interaction of genes that establish a prepattern in the developing skin and then translate it into dark and light ha…

A persistent trafficking route moves cheetah cubs from the Horn of Africa across the Gulf of Aden to markets on the Arabian Peninsula, where they are sold as exotic pets. This overview surveys researc…

First described in the early twentieth century from southern Africa, the king cheetah's bold blotches and stripes led some naturalists to propose it as a distinct species, Acinonyx rex. This overview…

One of the eight felid lineages groups three superficially different cats: the puma, the cheetah, and the jaguarundi. This overview explains how molecular phylogenetics revealed this surprising relati…

One of the most counterintuitive results of felid molecular phylogenetics was that the cheetah, long treated as a unique outlier, belongs to a New World puma lineage alongside the puma and the jaguaru…

The Asiatic cheetah survives only as a tiny relict population in the deserts of Iran, the last of a subspecies that once ranged across southwest Asia and India. This overview synthesizes what is known…

Despite being a large cat, the cheetah cannot roar and instead produces a distinctive repertoire including bird-like chirps, stutter-bark calls, churrs, and purring. This overview surveys descriptions…

Faecal glucocorticoid metabolite monitoring is the workhorse of felid stress research because it avoids the confound of capture and restraint, but it requires species-specific validation to be meaning…

Cats vary in how much they depend on free-standing water versus obtaining moisture from prey, a trait that shapes drought resilience in arid landscapes. This overview surveys what is known about water…

Beyond white tigers, other captive felid colour variants, white lions and the patterned king cheetah, raise similar questions about breeding for appearance. This overview surveys the genetics of these…

The cheetah is the classic exception to feline claw retraction: its claws remain largely exposed, blunt, and dog-like. This overview reviews the functional reasoning that this trades the sharp, sheath…

Cheetahs naturally occur at low densities and require large areas, a consequence of competition, prey, and their hunting strategy. This overview synthesizes research showing that suppression by lions…

A survey of how the synchronized mass calving and movement of migratory wildebeest may swamp predators, reducing per-capita predation on any individual. By giving birth in a brief, highly synchronized…

Rising carbon dioxide, altered rainfall, and changed fire and grazing regimes are driving woody plant encroachment into many African savannas, reshaping habitat for cats and their prey. This overview…

This study developed and tested protocols for hormonally inducing ovulation and performing laparoscopic artificial insemination in two nondomestic felids. The authors administered exogenous gonadotrop…

Howard JG, Roth TL, Byers AP, Swanson WF, Wildt DE · Biology of Reproduction · 1997

This study identified the gene responsible for the dramatic blotched coat of the king cheetah and the related variation between mackerel and blotched tabby patterns in domestic cats. The authors mappe…

Christopher B. Kaelin, Gregory S. Barsh, et al. · Science · 2012

This range-wide assessment compiled distribution and population data to show that cheetahs have been lost from the large majority of their historical range and now number only a few thousand adults, w…

Durant SM, Mitchell N, Groom R, et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2017

Schaller's monograph is the foundational field study of lion ecology and one of the most thorough predator-prey investigations ever conducted. Over years in the Serengeti, he documented lion social st…

Schaller, G.B. · University of Chicago Press · 1972

This landmark study used protein electrophoresis across dozens of allozyme loci to show that the cheetah carries almost no detectable genetic variation, a pattern unprecedented among mammals at the ti…

O'Brien SJ, Wildt DE, Goldman D, Merril CR, Bush M · Science · 1983

This influential study revealed that cheetahs possess strikingly low genetic variation, demonstrated by extreme similarity at protein-coding loci and, in later related work, acceptance of reciprocal s…

O'Brien SJ, Wildt DE, Goldman D, Merril CR, Bush M · Science · 1983

Quirke and O'Riordan tested several enrichment types on captive cheetahs at a breeding park, measuring effects on activity, exploration and stereotypic pacing. Different enrichments varied in effectiv…

Quirke T, O'Riordan RM · Applied Animal Behaviour Science · 2011

This range-wide assessment compiled data to show that the cheetah occupies a small fraction of its historical range and is more threatened than previously recognized, with most populations existing ou…

Durant, S.M., Mitchell, N., Groom, R., Pettorelli, N., Ipavec, A., Jacobson, A.P., et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2017

Periquet, Fritz and Revilla reviewed the full breadth of interactions between lions and spotted hyenas, the two dominant large carnivores of African savannas. They synthesized evidence on kleptoparasi…

Periquet, S., Fritz, H. & Revilla, E. · Biological Reviews · 2015

Hunter, Durant and Caro examined the decisions cheetahs make at carcasses when dominant competitors threaten, quantifying how the presence of lions and hyenas governs whether and when cheetahs abandon…

Hunter, J.S., Durant, S.M. & Caro, T.M. · Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology · 2007

This study established a quantitative baseline for cheetah reproductive physiology by electroejaculating wild-caught males and comparing their semen to that of domestic cats. The cheetahs produced eja…

Wildt DE, Bush M, Howard JG, O'Brien SJ, Meltzer D, van Dyk A, Ebedes H, Brand DJ · Biology of Reproduction · 1983