🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

The color of a cat's eyeshine, often green or yellow-green, reflects the wavelengths the tapetum returns most strongly. This overview surveys measurements of feline tapetal reflectance and discussion…

This overview explains why the Rancho La Brea asphalt seeps preserve such an extraordinary concentration of sabertooths and other carnivores. Natural petroleum seeping to the surface forms sticky asph…

Taste in cats is mediated by taste buds distributed across the tongue within specialized papillae, the same basic apparatus found in other mammals. This overview surveys feline taste bud anatomy, incl…

Whether a cat eats a given food depends heavily on palatability, which integrates taste with smell, texture, and temperature. This overview surveys how feline taste contributes to food acceptance, wor…

Cats require dietary taurine, and this overview reviews this classic example of feline nutritional specialisation. Unlike many mammals, cats cannot make enough taurine themselves and must get it from…

As obligate carnivores, cats cannot synthesize enough of the amino acid taurine and must obtain it from animal-based diets to maintain healthy vision. This overview surveys the well-documented link be…

Kittens often establish a teat order, returning preferentially to particular nipples during nursing, a phenomenon studied as a window into early learning and competition. This overview surveys researc…

A growing array of technologies, including drones, thermal cameras, acoustic sensors, and networked alarm systems, has been deployed to detect and deter poaching of big cats and their prey. This overv…

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…

Functional connectivity, whether animals actually move between habitat patches, is best assessed with movement data from collared cats. This overview surveys how GPS telemetry, step-selection function…

In endangered cats, individual temperament can determine reproductive success and welfare in managed-care programs. This overview surveys research extending the cheetah findings to other species, exam…

Camera traps stamp each photograph with a time, turning deployments into records of when species are active. This overview explains how researchers use these timestamps to estimate daily activity patt…

Suburban bobcats commonly adjust their activity timing to avoid peak human presence, becoming more nocturnal or crepuscular in developed areas while remaining more diurnal in wildland. This overview s…

Many felids, especially genetically depauperate species like the cheetah, produce ejaculates with a high proportion of structurally abnormal sperm, a condition called teratospermia. This overview surv…

Veterinary reports of cats surviving falls from great heights inspired the idea that, past a certain height, injuries may not simply keep worsening. This overview surveys the biomechanics: after right…

Recovering sperm directly from the testis or epididymis provides an alternative source of gametes, especially from animals that cannot be electroejaculated or are recently deceased. This overview surv…

Reproductive hormone levels in male cats can vary seasonally and with social status, influencing semen quality and reproductive behavior. This overview surveys research on testosterone and related and…

In 1994 a canine distemper epidemic swept the Serengeti, killing roughly a third of its lions and spreading to leopards, hyenas and other carnivores. This overview reconstructs the outbreak timeline:…

Genetic and archaeological evidence converge on the African or Near Eastern wildcat, Felis lybica, as the sole wild ancestor of all domestic cats. This overview explains how the foundational phylogeog…

The American lion, Panthera atrox, was one of the largest cats ever to live, roaming Pleistocene North America south of the ice sheets. This overview surveys ancient-DNA evidence indicating that the A…

This overview examines the record of Panthera atrox at Rancho La Brea, where the American lion is far less common than the sabertooth Smilodon but is nonetheless represented by valuable cranial and po…

The Amur leopard of the Russian Far East and northeast China is one of the rarest cats on Earth and a clearly recognized subspecies, Panthera pardus orientalis. This overview reviews the genetic and m…

The Amur leopard, a cold-adapted subspecies of the temperate forests of the Russian Far East and northeast China, became one of the rarest cats on Earth, falling to only a few dozen wild individuals.…

This overview synthesises the long-running program, pioneered by the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia, that places Anatolian shepherd and Kangal guarding dogs with farmers to reduce cheetah and le…

The Andean mountain cat, Leopardus jacobita, is a rare, high-altitude felid of the Andes and one of the least known cats in the Americas. This overview examines its taxonomic placement within the ocel…

The critically endangered Arabian leopard, Panthera pardus nimr, is the smallest leopard subspecies and survives in tiny, fragmented populations on the Arabian Peninsula. This overview examines its ta…

The Asian golden cat, Catopuma temminckii, ranges across South and Southeast Asia and shows considerable variation in coat color and pattern, from plain golden to spotted and grey forms. This overview…

This overview surveys evidence that the family Felidae originated in Eurasia, likely in Asia, before dispersing repeatedly across the world. Combining the fossil record of early cats such as Proailuru…

The Asiatic cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus venaticus, survives only as a tiny relict population in Iran and is one of the most endangered cats on Earth. This overview examines its taxonomic recognition and…

The Asiatic cheetah, once ranging across southwest and central Asia, now survives only in Iran, where it numbers a critically small number of individuals scattered across vast arid landscapes. This ov…