🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

This overview compiles what is known of rusty-spotted cat behavior, much of it from captivity and scattered field observation. The species is solitary, secretive, and reportedly bold and active for it…

This overview examines the diet and activity of the rusty-spotted cat, drawn from limited field and captive observation. The species is largely nocturnal, emerging after dark to hunt small prey includ…

The rusty-spotted cat, among the smallest of all cats, occurs mainly in India and Sri Lanka, with its range now known to extend into Nepal. This overview compiles records describing its occurrence in…

Once thought to require undisturbed forest, the rusty-spotted cat is increasingly recorded in human-modified landscapes, and this overview reviews its habitat use. Camera-trap studies document the spe…

The rusty-spotted cat, one of the world's smallest felids, inhabits forests and scrub of India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, and is so tiny and secretive that camera traps provide many of the few confirmed r…

This overview compares the killing strategies of sabertooth cats with those of conical-toothed felids such as modern lions and tigers. Living big cats typically use short, robust canines and a powerfu…

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…

Home-range estimates depend not only on the animal but on how it was sampled, and this overview examines how the number of fixes and the interval between them shape the result. Too few locations under…

Wildlife occurrence data for cats are often opportunistically collected, biased toward roads, reserves, and accessible terrain, which can distort distribution models if uncorrected. This overview surv…

Trap-nights, the number of cameras multiplied by the days each is active, are the basic currency of camera-trap survey effort, and this overview examines how effort governs what a study can reveal. It…

The sand cat is a textbook example of desert specialization, and this overview reviews the suite of adaptations that let it thrive where temperatures swing sharply and water is scarce. Dense fur cover…

Shelter is central to sand cat survival, and this overview compiles what is known about its use of burrows. The cat digs shallow burrows or enlarges those of foxes, porcupines, and rodents, retreating…

Dietary studies describe the sand cat as a hunter of small desert vertebrates, with gerbils and other rodents forming the core of the diet alongside lizards, snakes, birds, and insects. This overview…

The sand cat is the only felid largely confined to true desert, ranging in scattered populations across the Sahara, the Arabian Peninsula, and the deserts of central Asia. This overview compiles recor…

This overview examines how the sand cat schedules activity to survive desert extremes. Telemetry and observation show the species is strongly nocturnal, emerging after dark to hunt and travel long dis…

Older cats commonly lose lean muscle mass through sarcopenia, the age-related decline in muscle, and cachexia associated with chronic disease, contributing to weakness, reduced resilience, and worse o…

Sarcoptic mange, caused by the burrowing mite Sarcoptes scabiei, affects a wide range of carnivores and occasionally strikes large felids, producing hair loss, crusting, intense itching and debilitati…

GPS satellite collars have transformed understanding of snow leopard ecology, revealing that these cats range over far larger areas than once assumed. This overview surveys telemetry research showing…

Any device added to an animal carries potential costs, and this overview examines research into the energetic and biomechanical burden of tags, drawing on the broader literature where careful experime…

Small cats seem to out-jump big cats relative to their size, and this overview reviews how jumping ability scales across the felid family. Physical principles predict that absolute jump height does no…

Felids span from sub-kilogram wildcats to lions and tigers of well over a hundred kilograms, and body size profoundly shapes how they move. This overview reviews how speed, acceleration, jumping abili…

An overview comparing the two principal ways of determining what cats eat, analysis of prey remains in scats and investigation of kill sites, and their complementary strengths and biases. Scat analysi…

Wild cats spend much of their active time searching for, stalking and processing prey, whereas captive cats are often fed a single quick meal. This overview surveys husbandry research on scatter feedi…

Lions are both hunters and scavengers, and their relationship with spotted hyenas is a central feature of African large-carnivore communities. This overview reviews how lions appropriate hyena kills a…

Many felids scavenge as well as hunt, and feeding on carcasses exposes them to pathogens including anthrax, bovine tuberculosis and parasites concentrated in dead and diseased animals. This overview s…

An overview of how much carrion features in the diets of cats traditionally viewed as pure hunters. While felids are generally more reliant on fresh kills than canids or hyaenids, many will scavenge o…

This overview examines the hypothesis that scavenging human corpses can initiate man-eating in big cats, drawing on historical episodes such as the Tsavo railway era and famine, epidemic, and conflict…

Solitary and group-living cats alike rely on a network of chemical signals to coordinate behaviour without constant contact. This overview surveys research on the feline scent-communication system, in…

Much cat communication is olfactory, and this overview surveys the chemical signalling that structures feline social and territorial life. It covers the main marking behaviours, including urine sprayi…

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…