🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Chronic kidney disease is a common cause of illness and death in aging captive big cats, paralleling its prominence in domestic cats and reflecting the longer lifespans achieved in managed care. Capti…

When males cooperate in coalitions, reproductive skew describes how evenly or unequally reproduction is divided among members. This overview surveys reproductive skew in felid coalitions, particularly…

Male reproductive success in cats depends on the ability to acquire and defend mating opportunities, which often declines with age as competitive ability wanes. This overview surveys how aging affects…

In some social or group-housed felids, subordinate individuals may experience reduced reproduction through social or physiological suppression. This overview surveys reproductive suppression in cats,…

Sustaining a sprint demands rapid oxygen delivery and gas exchange. This overview surveys what is known about the cheetah heart, lungs, blood, and airways in the context of brief, maximal exercise. Fe…

Roads bisecting cheetah habitat in central Iran have become a notable cause of Asiatic cheetah deaths, a severe problem for a population so small that each loss is consequential. This overview surveys…

Some female felids ovulate or become reproductively receptive with few outward behavioral signs, a phenomenon called silent or behavioral estrus that complicates breeding management. This overview sur…

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…

Captive cheetahs frequently show ovarian inactivity, and social stress is among the proposed contributors to suppressed cycling and anovulation. This overview surveys research linking the social envir…

Female cheetahs lead solitary lives and, unlike territorial males, range over very large areas that track the movements of their prey. This overview synthesizes research, especially from the Serengeti…

An overview comparing the hunting effectiveness of solitary felids with the cooperative hunting of lions, addressing why most cats hunt alone. Solitary ambush hunting suits stalking predators that tar…

Banking living somatic cells, such as skin fibroblasts, preserves an individual's full genome for potential future use in cloning or stem cell technologies. This overview surveys the collection, cultu…

An overview of how cheetahs reduce the risk of intraguild predation and kleptoparasitism by avoiding lions across space and time. As a subordinate cursorial predator, the cheetah suffers heavy cub mor…

Freezing and storing sperm is the most established form of felid biobanking, enabling the preservation and transport of male genetics. This overview surveys methods for cryopreserving cat sperm, inclu…

Across felid species and populations, the quality of sperm morphology tends to correlate with the level of genetic diversity, linking population history to reproductive function. This overview surveys…

The cheetah uses a rotary gallop with two airborne suspension phases per stride, one with limbs gathered and one with them extended. This overview examines how dorsoventral flexion and extension of th…

Deciding which individuals, tissues, and species to bank, and how to use stored material, requires strategy to maximize conservation value. This overview surveys the principles guiding genome resource…

How does the cheetah reach gallop speeds that outpace other land mammals? This overview synthesises what is known about the interplay of stride length and stride frequency as cheetahs accelerate. Unli…

Studbooks record the pedigree and demographic history of every individual in a managed population, providing the data needed to plan breeding for genetic and demographic health. This overview surveys…

Although cheetahs are genetically depleted overall, they are not uniform across their range, and several subspecies are recognized, including the southern and eastern African cheetahs, the northwest A…

Cheetah sprint mechanics are usually described on flat, open ground, but real hunts cross uneven, sloped, and variably firm terrain. This overview examines how substrate hardness, surface friction, sl…

Managing captive felid populations sustainably requires controlling breeding to match available space and genetic goals, which raises difficult questions about surplus animals. This overview surveys t…

The cheetah long, heavy, flattened tail is widely described as a rudder or counterbalance, but how exactly does it contribute to turning? This overview reviews the biomechanical reasoning and observat…

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…

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…

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 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…

Effective enrichment is a structured process, not a collection of toys, and the SPIDER framework, Setting goals, Planning, Implementing, Documenting, Evaluating and Re-adjusting, formalises this cycle…

A small, cryptic population of cheetahs survives across the Sahara and Sahel of Northwest Africa, representing a distinct and critically endangered lineage adapted to extreme desert conditions. This o…