🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Quantifying how much two animals' ranges overlap is central to questions of territoriality, social structure, and resource competition, and this overview surveys the statistical indices used. Measures…

After SARS-CoV-2 reached zoo animals, some facilities vaccinated captive carnivores, including big cats, using animal-specific vaccines to reduce the risk of severe disease. This overview surveys the…

Captive big cats are vaccinated against diseases that threaten felids, including panleukopenia, the respiratory viruses, and rabies, with protocols adapted from domestic-cat guidelines but informed by…

Vaccinating endangered wild felids against canine distemper is fraught with trade-offs. This overview surveys the options: modified-live vaccines, which risk vaccine-induced disease in non-target spec…

Modified-live canine distemper vaccines, while protective in dogs, have caused vaccine-induced disease when given to some nondomestic carnivores, complicating efforts to protect wild felids. This over…

Feline herpesvirus-1 and feline calicivirus are major causes of upper respiratory disease in cats, and core vaccines against them reduce the severity of illness, though they do not fully prevent infec…

The ovulatory reflex in cats is triggered when sensory receptors in the vagina and cervix are stimulated during intromission, sending signals through the spinal cord and hypothalamus to the pituitary.…

Beyond catnip and silver vine, valerian root and Tatarian honeysuckle wood also elicit pleasurable responses in many cats. This overview surveys these alternative botanicals, which can stimulate cats…

Predicted corridors are only useful if real animals actually use them, and this overview examines how researchers validate connectivity models against independent movement data. By overlaying GPS trac…

Faecal glucocorticoid metabolite monitoring is the workhorse of felid stress research because it avoids the confound of capture and restraint, but it requires species-specific validation to be meaning…

Assessing whether a habitat model is any good requires careful evaluation, especially when projecting into the future where ground truth is unavailable. This overview surveys the metrics used, AUC, tr…

Not all cat eyes glow the same color, and the variation carries clues about the tapetum and pigmentation. This overview surveys reports that eyeshine color can differ with age, coat and eye pigmentati…

Ticks, fleas, mosquitoes and tsetse flies transmit many of the pathogens that affect wild cats, making vector ecology central to felid disease. This overview surveys the vectors responsible for spread…

Satellite indices of vegetation productivity such as NDVI track the green forage that drives herbivore abundance, offering a remote way to anticipate prey conditions for predators. This overview surve…

For pumas living in and around Los Angeles, collisions with vehicles on freeways and surface roads are among the most frequent documented causes of death. This overview synthesises telemetry-based mor…

Cats are remarkable jumpers, clearing many times their own height, and this overview reviews the biomechanics of their vertical leaps. A jump is powered by rapid, coordinated extension of the hindlimb…

Cats are arboreal-capable, climbing predators that value height, and research consistently shows captive felids prefer and benefit from elevated resting platforms, climbing structures and visually com…

Balance can decline with age as the vestibular system and associated pathways change, affecting the steadiness of older cats. This overview surveys vestibular aging in senior cats, which may contribut…

The righting reflex begins with sensing which way is down. This overview reviews how the vestibular apparatus of the inner ear detects head orientation and triggers the cascade of head, spine, and lim…

When the vestibular system malfunctions, cats can show dramatic signs of imbalance, and studying these disorders illuminates how the balance sense normally works. This overview surveys feline vestibul…

This overview synthesises studies analysing who is attacked by tigers and leopards and under what circumstances, drawing on incident records across South Asia. It reviews patterns by age, sex, occupat…

Camera traps can record still images, video, or both, and emerging deployments add thermal imaging and acoustic sensors, each modality offering different strengths for detecting and studying cats. Thi…

This overview reviews the contested practice of voluntarily relocating villages out of tiger-reserve cores in India to reduce human-tiger conflict and create inviolate breeding habitat. It synthesises…

Wild felids living near cities are exposed to pathogens including feline immunodeficiency virus, feline leukemia virus and others, sometimes shared with domestic cats, raising conservation and One Hea…

Cats see the world less sharply than humans do, and this overview reviews how feline visual acuity is measured and what limits it. Behavioural and electrophysiological tests indicate that cats resolve…

Cats communicate a great deal through the positions of their ears, tail, body, and fur, and through pupil dilation, conveying emotional state and intentions without sound. This overview surveys etholo…

A cat total visual field combines a frontal binocular zone with peripheral monocular vision, and this overview reviews its extent and use. The arrangement gives cats good depth perception ahead while…

Cats cannot make vitamin A from the plant pigment beta-carotene the way many animals do, and this overview reviews this dependence on preformed vitamin A. Lacking sufficient enzyme activity to convert…

Vitrification, an ultra-rapid freezing method that avoids ice crystal formation, is used to preserve felid eggs, which are particularly sensitive to cryodamage. This overview surveys research on vitri…

Tigers use a repertoire of calls, including powerful roars rich in low-frequency and infrasonic energy that carry far through forest. This overview synthesizes research on how these vocalizations adve…