🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Field immobilization of leopards and snow leopards presents distinctive challenges, including the elusive, often nocturnal behavior of these cats, rugged or high-altitude terrain, and extreme cold in…

This overview synthesises research on how individual big cats develop man-eating behaviour, integrating evidence from Tsavo lions, Sundarbans and Champawat tigers, and Indian leopards. It reviews the…

Integrative taxonomy combines independent data classes (morphology, mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, ecology, biogeography, and behavior) to delimit taxa, and it has become the standard for resolving ca…

Big cats not only compete for prey but kill one another, and intraguild predation shapes the structure of carnivore communities. This overview synthesizes research on how dominant cats such as lions a…

A survey of the lethal interactions between cats and dogs that share prey and space, a major structuring force in carnivore communities. Lions and hyenas kill wild dogs and cheetahs; pumas and coyotes…

The leopard cat lineage offers a natural laboratory for studying how island isolation shapes felid taxonomy. This overview surveys how leopard cats colonized numerous islands across Asia, from Japan t…

A survey of the pervasive theft of kills within the African large-carnivore guild, where lions, spotted hyenas, leopards, cheetahs and wild dogs constantly contest carcasses. The direction and outcome…

Cheetahs lose a significant share of their kills to larger carnivores, a major cost of their position in the savanna guild. This overview synthesizes research showing that lions, hyenas, and even leop…

Decisions about where and how cities expand profoundly shape whether large and small carnivores can persist alongside people. This overview synthesises research and practice on integrating carnivore n…

This overview synthesises studies identifying which landscape and management variables predict where big cats kill livestock, a recurring quantitative question across conflict research. It reviews con…

Leopards are flexible in their timing of activity, becoming more strictly nocturnal where humans and dominant competitors are present. This overview synthesizes camera-trap studies showing that leopar…

Leopards are versatile solitary hunters whose success rests on stealth, ambush, and the ability to secure kills from kleptoparasites. This overview surveys studies of leopard hunting tactics across fo…

This overview examines persistent leopard predation on humans in the Pauri Garhwal hills of Uttarakhand, India, a region with a long history of so-called man-eating leopards. It synthesises work on th…

This overview examines leopard cat activity, which camera-trap and telemetry studies generally describe as predominantly nocturnal and crepuscular, with flexibility according to prey, season, and dist…

Leopard cats occasionally prey on free-ranging chickens, generating conflict with rural households whose tolerance is pivotal to the species survival in unprotected farmland. This overview synthesises…

Dietary studies portray the leopard cat as a generalist predator with a strong reliance on small rodents, supplemented by birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and insects. This overview synthesizes scat…

Leopard cats are efficient predators of rodents and other small prey, and in agricultural mosaics they may provide pest-suppression services that benefit farmers. This overview synthesises scat and pr…

The leopard cat is the most widespread small cat in Asia, ranging from the Russian Far East and Korea through China, the Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia to the islands of Sundaland and the Phi…

The leopard cat is the wild ancestor of the domestic Bengal cat breed, and this overview reviews the biology and conservation implications of that connection. Hybridization between leopard cats and do…

The leopard cat has colonized many islands across its range, giving rise to distinct populations and subspecies, and this overview reviews their biology and significance. Island forms, including those…

Although all modern house cats descend from the Near Eastern wildcat, archaeological cats at early Chinese farming villages were later identified as leopard cats, a different genus-level relative. Thi…

The leopard cat is notably tolerant of agricultural landscapes, and this overview reviews research on these populations. Camera-trap and telemetry studies document the species using plantations, rice…

Taiwan leopard cat population persists almost entirely outside protected areas, in a patchwork of low-elevation farmland, betel-nut and fruit orchards, secondary forest and rural settlements in Miaoli…

This overview examines human-leopard conflict in Sri Lanka, home to an endemic leopard subspecies that ranges across tea estates, scrub, and forest mosaics. It synthesises evidence on the leading thre…

This overview synthesises camera-trap and telemetry studies estimating leopard abundance, density, and movement within Sanjay Gandhi National Park, a forested island surrounded by metropolitan Mumbai.…

Leopards are among the most frequently camera-trapped big cats, their rosette patterns enabling robust individual identification across an enormous range spanning Africa and Asia. This overview survey…

Sanjay Gandhi National Park is a roughly hundred-square-kilometre forest island embedded within metropolitan Mumbai, hosting one of the highest known leopard densities recorded near a megacity. This o…

A survey of the leopard's exceptionally broad diet, the widest of any large felid, which lets it occupy more habitats than any other big cat. Leopards eat dozens to over a hundred prey species across…

Leopard home-range size and density vary enormously, reflecting the species' adaptability. This overview synthesizes telemetry and camera-trap studies showing that leopards occupy small territories at…

A survey of how the depletion of wild prey drives leopards to kill domestic livestock, fueling conflict that is a leading threat to the species. Across Africa and Asia, leopards persisting near people…