🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

This overview surveys the internal classification of the Machairodontinae, the true sabertooth cats within the family Felidae. Researchers commonly divide the subfamily into several tribes: the Smilod…

Purring is most associated with contentment, but cats also purr when injured, frightened, giving birth, or near death, prompting research into its varied functions. This overview surveys evidence that…

The marbled cat, Pardofelis marmorata, is a small, arboreal Southeast Asian felid whose clouded-leopard-like coat once suggested a relationship to the big cats. This overview explains how molecular ph…

The marbled cat exemplifies how little is known about some small cats, and this overview reviews the data gaps and efforts to fill them. Basic information on the species population size, density, rang…

Whether any felid experiences a true menopause, with reproduction ceasing well before the end of life, is a subject of comparative interest. This overview surveys the evidence and theory bearing on po…

Adult cats rarely meow at one another but meow frequently at people, leading to the hypothesis that the meow has been shaped by life alongside humans. This overview surveys research comparing the call…

Adult cats rarely meow at one another but meow frequently at people, leading to the hypothesis that the meow is largely a product of life with humans. This overview surveys evidence that domestic cats…

Mesopredator release, in which the decline of top predators allows smaller predators to increase and overexploit prey, is a foundational concept linking urban fragmentation to biodiversity loss. This…

Leopards once carried more than two dozen named subspecies, but molecular work collapsed this to roughly eight or nine. This overview lists the currently recognized subspecies: the African leopard, pl…

Cats can move their external ears with remarkable freedom thanks to a large number of muscles controlling each pinna. This overview surveys the ear musculature that lets cats rotate, tilt, and swivel…

The Malayan tiger of the southern Malay Peninsula was formally separated from the Indochinese tiger in the early 2000s based on molecular evidence of genetic distinctiveness. This overview describes h…

Before they can win a pride, young male lions endure a nomadic phase after being evicted from their natal range. This overview synthesizes what is known about this risky period: bachelors roam widely,…

Between leaving their natal pride and acquiring a pride of their own, male lions pass through a nomadic phase during which they range widely without a fixed territory. This overview surveys the ecolog…

Cats are obligate carnivores with a metabolism evolved for a strictly meat-based diet, giving them distinctive nutritional requirements including high protein needs, dependence on preformed nutrients…

The ocelot lineage comprises the small spotted cats of the Americas, nearly all placed in the genus Leopardus, and represents a relatively recent and rapid radiation. This overview surveys the group,…

Research into why cats find silver vine and catnip rewarding has pointed to the involvement of the body's opioid system. This overview surveys evidence that the rubbing and rolling response engages en…

This overview surveys evidence on where and when the Panthera lineage, the genus that includes lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, and snow leopards, first arose. Molecular phylogenies place the diverge…

This overview traces how VHF radio-telemetry emerged in the late 1950s and 1960s, when biologists such as the Craighead brothers fitted grizzly bears in Yellowstone with radio collars and proved that…

Phonetic research has begun to dissect the structure of cat vocalizations as if they were speech-like sounds, examining pitch contours, vowel-like qualities and prosody. This overview surveys work, in…

The snow leopard's relationships within the big cats were long uncertain, with some classifications isolating it in its own genus, Uncia. This overview explains how molecular phylogenetics resolved it…

Clouded leopards occupy a pivotal position as the sister group to the other big cats within the subfamily Pantherinae. This overview explains how molecular phylogenies consistently place the genus Neo…

The rusty-spotted cat, one of the smallest of all cats, is found in India and Sri Lanka and belongs to the leopard cat lineage. This overview reviews its placement within the genus Prionailurus, where…

The roar of a lion or tiger is among the loudest sounds a land mammal makes, and biomechanical research has sought to explain how such low, powerful sound is generated. This overview surveys findings…

The pounce is a hallmark of feline hunting, and this overview reviews it as a specialised short-range jump. After a stealthy approach, a cat launches a controlled leap onto nearby prey, combining a me…

This overview examines the prey-restraint hypothesis, which holds that sabertooths, especially robust dirk-toothed forms like Smilodon, depended on overpowering and immobilizing prey with their foreli…

Cat claws are often called retractable, but they are more accurately protrusible: at rest they are held back by elastic ligaments, and muscles actively pull them forward into action. This overview exp…

The puma has the largest latitudinal range of any wild land mammal in the Western Hemisphere, occupying habitats from boreal forest and western mountains to deserts, grasslands, swamps, and tropical j…

One of the eight felid lineages groups three superficially different cats: the puma, the cheetah, and the jaguarundi. This overview explains how molecular phylogenetics revealed this surprising relati…

One of the most counterintuitive results of felid molecular phylogenetics was that the cheetah, long treated as a unique outlier, belongs to a New World puma lineage alongside the puma and the jaguaru…

Pumas are solitary cats with large, overlapping ranges in which males associate with females only briefly during estrus. This overview surveys what telemetry and field studies reveal about puma reprod…