🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Tigers and several other large cats produce prusten, also called chuffing, a soft fluttering sound made by blowing air through the nostrils with the mouth closed. This overview surveys observations th…

Beyond the Sundarbans, tigers across Asia face varied climate exposure layered onto severe habitat loss, prompting range-wide vulnerability thinking. This overview surveys how climate projections, sea…

This overview synthesises the role of specialised rapid-response teams in managing human-tiger conflict, from Village Tiger Response Teams in the Sundarbans to forest-department units across India and…

A central question in distemper ecology is how a virus historically associated with dogs repeatedly jumps into cats. This overview surveys research on the molecular basis of canine distemper virus hos…

In the Russian Far East, orphaned and conflict-involved Amur tiger cubs have been rehabilitated and released back into the wild, including into areas where tigers had become scarce, offering a distinc…

This overview examines how religious beliefs, sacred associations, and cultural traditions foster, or sometimes undermine, tolerance for big cats. It synthesises cases such as reverence for tigers and…

Satellite remote sensing is the backbone of measuring habitat change across the vast ranges of wild cats. This overview surveys the data and methods, optical imagery for land-cover classification, rad…

Beyond outright inundation, sea-level rise and reduced freshwater flow are increasing salinity in the Sundarbans, shifting mangrove species composition and forest productivity that underpin tiger habi…

This overview examines the persistent gap between perceived and actual risk in human-big cat conflict, a theme cutting across lion, tiger, leopard, puma, and jaguar systems. It synthesises research sh…

Roads affect cats through direct mortality and through the barrier effect that fragments populations, a central theme in carnivore conservation. This overview surveys research quantifying how highways…

This overview examines how environmental stressors, rising salinity, sea-level rise, cyclones, and freshwater scarcity, may influence tiger behaviour and human-tiger conflict in the Sundarbans. It syn…

Solitary tigers coordinate spacing and reproduction largely through scent. This overview synthesizes research on how tigers spray scent on trees, scrape the ground, rub cheeks, and deposit feces and u…

Felids scratch trees and other surfaces and create ground scrapes that combine visual marks with scent from glands in the paws. This overview surveys research on the marking function of scratching acr…

Infanticide by males is documented or inferred across many felid species, from lions to tigers, leopards, pumas, and others, wherever killing dependent young can hasten a female's next conception. Thi…

Before and alongside molecular work, tiger subspecies were assessed by measuring skulls and body proportions. This overview explains how craniometric analyses, comparing dimensions across museum speci…

This overview reviews how wire snaring set for bushmeat indirectly drives big-cat conflict and mortality, a growing threat across Africa and Asia. It synthesises evidence that snares intended for ante…

Across Sumatra, widespread snaring depletes both tigers and their prey, hollowing out forests that still appear intact on satellite imagery. This overview surveys how indiscriminate wire snares set fo…

Felid sociality varies from the solitary tiger and most small cats to the group-living lion, and captive social management must respect these differences. This overview surveys research on housing cat…

This overview synthesises research showing that much apparent human-carnivore conflict is in fact conflict between human groups, communities versus conservation authorities, locals versus outsiders, e…

The tiger is a powerful solitary ambush predator capable of taking prey far larger than itself. This overview surveys research on tiger hunting, including the reliance on dense cover for close approac…

This overview surveys research treating tiger populations as networks of sources, where reproduction exceeds mortality, and sinks, where animals die faster than they breed but persist through immigrat…

Tiger persistence across Asia increasingly depends on networks of reserves connected by corridors. This overview synthesizes the source-sink framework, in which well-protected core reserves with abund…

This overview reviews how spatial zoning, separating core predator habitat, buffer zones, and human-use areas, and broader land-use planning can structure coexistence with big cats. It synthesises app…

An overview of how ambush felids select hunting habitat to minimize the distance over which they must close on prey undetected. Because capture success drops sharply with the length of the final rush,…

In India and Southeast Asia, tigers move between protected areas through a matrix of forest fragments, plantations, and human settlements, and this overview examines the role of stepping-stone habitat…

Although many cats avoid water, some are capable swimmers, and a few hunt in it. This overview surveys aquatic locomotion in felids, focusing on the fishing cat, whose partially webbed paws and water-…

Unlike most cats, tigers are strong swimmers and readily enter water, a trait with ecological significance in wet habitats. This overview synthesizes observations of tigers swimming between islands in…

Radio and GPS telemetry have revealed how young tigers leave their natal range, search for vacant territory, and establish themselves as breeders. This overview surveys telemetry-based findings on tig…

This overview revisits the historical record of man-eating tigers in the Himalayan foothills, centred on the Champawat tigress reputed to have killed hundreds before being shot by Jim Corbett in the e…

Adopted at the 2010 St. Petersburg summit, the Global Tiger Recovery Program coordinated commitments from the thirteen tiger range countries around the goal of doubling wild tigers. This overview surv…