🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Noninvasive measurement of reproductive and stress hormones from feces and urine has transformed the study and management of felid reproduction. This overview surveys the development and application o…

Feeding captive non-domestic cats well requires meeting obligate-carnivore requirements for taurine, arginine, vitamin A, arachidonic acid and appropriate calcium-to-phosphorus ratios, which whole pre…

Chemical signals among individuals can influence reproductive physiology and behavior in cats, including potential suppressive or stimulatory effects in social settings. This overview surveys how olfa…

Adult cheetah sprinting is well characterised, but how do cubs develop the coordination, muscle architecture, and skeletal proportions required for high-speed pursuit? This overview gathers what is kn…

The quality and developmental competence of eggs decline with maternal age, contributing to reduced fertility in older female cats. This overview surveys research on how aging affects felid oocytes, i…

The chemicals and protocols used to protect sperm during freezing strongly determine how many survive thawing with intact function. This overview surveys research aimed at optimizing cryoprotectants a…

Many captive female cheetahs experience extended periods without ovarian cyclicity, a major obstacle to sustaining captive populations. This overview surveys research characterizing ovarian inactivity…

Stimulating the ovaries with exogenous gonadotropins to produce multiple follicles is a key step in collecting eggs or preparing females for insemination in cats. This overview surveys ovarian stimula…

Grafting felid ovarian tissue into immunodeficient host animals is an experimental method for maturing follicles and recovering oocytes from banked or rescued tissue. This overview surveys research on…

Many captive cats, notably cheetahs and clouded leopards, undergo prolonged periods of ovarian inactivity in which they neither cycle nor ovulate, undermining breeding programs. This overview examines…

Synchronizing ovulation with the delivery of semen is essential for successful artificial insemination, since eggs and sperm must meet within a narrow window. This overview surveys methods for timing…

Stereotypic pacing is the signature abnormal behaviour of captive carnivores, and a leading explanation links it to thwarted ranging and unfulfilled appetitive, pre-consummatory motivation, the search…

Pedigree analysis uses recorded ancestry to estimate relatedness, inbreeding coefficients, and founder contributions that guide breeding decisions. This overview surveys how felid studbook pedigrees a…

A challenging finding for felid welfare management is that stereotypic pacing, once established, can persist even after enclosures are enriched or enlarged, becoming partly independent of its original…

Individual cats differ consistently in boldness, fearfulness, aggressiveness and sociability, and these stable traits affect welfare, breeding success and how animals respond to husbandry. This overvi…

Anesthetizing large felids carries substantial physiologic risk, and monitoring of oxygenation, ventilation, heart rate, blood pressure, and temperature is essential, with pulse oximetry, capnography,…

Young cats engage in object and social play that is widely thought to help develop the motor patterns and coordination underlying predatory behavior. This overview surveys studies of play in kittens a…

Operant conditioning with positive reinforcement underpins modern husbandry training, allowing cats to cooperate in shifting, crating, weighing and medical procedures. This overview surveys the learni…

After a sufficient mating stimulus, the time from the luteinizing hormone surge to actual egg release follows a characteristic interval that determines the optimal window for fertilization. This overv…

Recovering viable gametes from animals shortly after death allows valuable genetics to be salvaged that would otherwise be lost. This overview surveys post-mortem gamete rescue in felids, including th…

Cheetah cubs face exceptionally high mortality before independence, with predation by larger carnivores being the dominant cause in open habitats. This overview surveys evidence that lions and spotted…

This overview surveys evidence on reinforcing nighttime livestock enclosures (bomas, kraals) to prevent attacks by lions, leopards, hyenas, and cheetahs across East African rangelands. It covers the p…

Modern zoos run structured preventive medicine programs for captive felids encompassing routine health monitoring, parasite control, vaccination, nutritional management, dental care, and increasingly…

The Asiatic cheetah depends on wild ungulates such as gazelle, wild sheep, and wild goat, whose populations have been depleted across central Iran by poaching, livestock competition, and habitat degra…

A survey of the anti-predator escape behaviors prey use once detected or attacked by cats and how they determine the outcome of a hunt. Prey employ rapid acceleration, unpredictable zig-zagging, stott…

An overview of how the range of prey sizes a felid exploits scales with its own body mass, producing the nested prey-size structure of carnivore communities. Larger cats not only take larger average p…

When a cat ovulates without conceiving, the resulting corpora lutea secrete progesterone and produce a pseudopregnancy, a non-fertile luteal phase shorter than true gestation. This overview surveys th…

Deciding when a chronically ill or aged big cat's welfare no longer justifies continued life is among the most difficult tasks in captive felid care. This overview surveys structured quality-of-life a…

Releasing captive-bred cats into the wild aims to restore or reinforce populations but requires that animals possess the skills and health to survive and reproduce. This overview surveys reintroductio…

Remote drug delivery using dart guns and pole syringes enables chemical immobilization of dangerous or free-ranging felids from a safe distance, a foundational technique for field and zoo capture. Suc…