🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Cheetah cubs suffer extremely high mortality in the wild, and understanding its causes has been central to assessing the species' resilience. This overview surveys research, much of it from long-term…

Cheetah cubs suffer extremely high mortality, much of it inflicted by lions and spotted hyenas. This overview synthesizes research documenting that on the open plains the majority of cheetah cubs die…

A survey of the heavy toll that lions and spotted hyenas take on cheetah cubs, a key demographic constraint on cheetah populations. Studies in the Serengeti and elsewhere have recorded that a large fr…

The cheetah's celebrated speed is the centerpiece of a hunting strategy built on daytime pursuit of fleet prey. This overview synthesizes research on how cheetahs stalk to within range before launchin…

Cheetahs specialize on small to medium antelope, with gazelles forming the dietary core across much of their range. This overview synthesizes kill and scat studies showing that cheetahs favor prey the…

Because cheetahs occur at naturally low densities and avoid areas with high lion and hyena numbers, most cheetahs live outside formal protected areas on farmland and communal rangelands. This overview…

Much of the world's remaining cheetah population lives outside protected areas on farmland, particularly in Namibia, where the ecology differs from the famous plains populations. This overview synthes…

Climate change is reshaping the distribution and intensity of wildlife disease, with implications for felids through effects on vectors, reservoirs and host stress. This overview surveys how warming a…

Felids are relatively susceptible to Yersinia pestis, and infection can progress to acute, severe and sometimes fatal disease, distinguishing cats from more resistant carnivores. This overview surveys…

This overview synthesises evidence that fortified, predator-proof livestock enclosures deliver benefits beyond stopping depredation, including improved livestock health, reduced theft, and easier mana…

Wild lions infected with feline immunodeficiency virus often carry additional pathogens, raising the possibility that FIV-related immune changes interact with co-infections. This overview surveys rese…

Wild felids rarely carry a single pathogen, and interactions among co-infecting agents can determine whether infection is benign or deadly. This overview surveys the concept of co-infection synergy in…

Beyond P-22, several GPS-collared mountain lions in the National Park Service Santa Monica Mountains study have made rare, documented crossings of major freeways, including the 405 and 101, each event…

Lionesses that give birth around the same time pool their cubs into a communal creche, nursing and defending young cooperatively. This overview surveys how creches form following synchronized births,…

This overview examines community-run insurance schemes in which herders pay premiums into a locally managed fund that pays out for verified predator kills, an alternative to state or NGO compensation.…

This overview synthesises comparative studies that contrast successful and unsuccessful big-cat coexistence efforts to distil transferable lessons. It reviews analyses spanning lion, snow leopard, tig…

The sequencing of cat genomes, beginning with the domestic cat and extending to tiger, lion, snow leopard, cheetah, and others, transformed felid systematics. This overview surveys how whole-genome da…

Feline immunodeficiency virus causes an AIDS-like syndrome in domestic cats yet has long been assumed benign in its wild hosts. This overview examines the evidence for and against that assumption, com…

Compensation and insurance schemes aim to offset the costs that big cats impose on livestock owners, reducing the incentive for retaliatory killing. This overview surveys research evaluating these fin…

This overview examines why reconstructing the relationships among the living big cats has proven difficult, with different genes and analyses sometimes yielding conflicting trees. The lion, leopard, a…

As lion numbers decline and ranges fragment, conservation genomics has become central to managing the species across protected areas and fenced reserves. This overview surveys how genome-wide data are…

This overview synthesises research on lion attacks on humans in rural southeastern Africa, particularly Tanzania and Mozambique, where some of the highest modern rates of fatal lion predation have bee…

Cooperation is rare among felids, concentrated in the social lion and in cheetah and feral-cat male coalitions, making the family a useful contrast for theories of cooperation. This overview surveys r…

Cooperative care trains animals through positive reinforcement to participate voluntarily in medical procedures, replacing the stress and risk of immobilisation. This overview surveys how big cats are…

An overview of how social and grouping behavior in cats functions partly to defend kills against kleptoparasites and scavengers. In lions, larger groups retain carcasses against mobbing spotted hyenas…

Lions are the most cooperative felid hunters, and research on Etosha and Serengeti prides has examined whether they coordinate roles during group hunts. This overview surveys evidence that some liones…

This overview examines how agricultural practices raise human exposure to lion predation, building on findings that attacks in Tanzania concentrated where farmers slept in fields to protect crops from…

Tracking how lion cubs gain mass and size over time provides growth curves that inform age estimation, nutritional assessment, and survival analysis. This overview surveys data on lion cub growth from…

Cub survival is the demographic linchpin of lion populations and is highly variable. This overview synthesizes long-term studies showing that the majority of cubs die before independence from causes i…

Lion cub survival is shaped by the communal creche, in which synchronously breeding females pool and defend their young. This overview surveys research on how creche formation buffers cubs against sta…