🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

A lion roar is astonishingly loud and low, and this overview reviews the vocal-fold anatomy behind it. Studies of big cat larynges found unusually large, robust vocal folds with a thick layer of fat a…

Cats develop individually distinctive meows, and owners gradually learn to interpret their own cat's calls better than strangers do. This overview surveys research on acoustic individuality in cat voc…

Vomeronasal sensory neurons express specialized receptor families, often termed V1R and V2R types, that detect pheromones and related chemical cues. This overview surveys what is known about these rec…

Climate warming is enabling herders to graze livestock at higher elevations and later into the season, expanding the overlap between domestic stock and snow leopard core habitat. This overview examine…

Because garbage and organic waste feed both carnivores directly and the rodent and dog populations they prey upon, waste management is a powerful indirect lever on urban carnivore abundance and confli…

This overview reviews husbandry interventions promoted to reduce jaguar and puma depredation on cattle in the Venezuelan llanos and elsewhere, including the use of water buffalo, which form defensive…

Cats vary in how much they depend on free-standing water versus obtaining moisture from prey, a trait that shapes drought resilience in arid landscapes. This overview surveys what is known about water…

Several small cats thrive in deserts, and this overview reviews how they manage water balance where free water is scarce. Desert cats such as the sand cat obtain much of their water from the bodies of…

Descended from desert-adapted ancestors, cats have a relatively low thirst drive and historically obtained much of their water from prey, leading to research interest in how diet form, dry versus wet…

Unlike most cats, tigers readily enter water and swim, and providing pools is considered an important welfare and enrichment feature for the species. This overview surveys evidence and practice around…

Managers of reserves holding lions, tigers, and other cats sometimes provision artificial water to buffer wildlife against drought, a practice with contested ecological consequences. This overview sur…

Water sources and riparian corridors are disproportionately important to felids in human-dominated landscapes, providing drinking water, prey, cover and movement routes through otherwise hostile devel…

Weaning marks the shift from dependence on maternal milk to consuming solid prey, a gradual transition whose timing varies with species and circumstances. This overview surveys weaning ages across the…

Cats used in research have specific welfare needs and have been the subject of foundational stress and housing studies. This overview surveys laboratory feline welfare: the classic finding that unpred…

Pumas, also called cougars or mountain lions, are commonly held in zoos and frequently appear among rescued cats in sanctuaries, often arriving from the pet trade or roadside attractions. This overvie…

Small wild cats, servals, ocelots, fishing cats, sand cats, margays and others, are widely held yet receive less welfare research attention than big cats. This overview surveys their husbandry needs:…

Private ownership of tigers, lions and other big cats, historically widespread in some countries, raises acute welfare and public-safety concerns. This overview surveys the issues: inadequate enclosur…

This overview examines the downsides and trade-offs of deploying livestock-guarding dogs against big cats, balancing their depredation-reducing benefits. It synthesises research on dog welfare, exposu…

Cub-petting attractions, where the public pays to handle tiger, lion and other big-cat cubs, depend on a continuous supply of young animals within a narrow handleable age window. This overview surveys…

Conceptual frameworks structure how we judge captive animal welfare, and they have evolved over time. This overview surveys the progression from the Five Freedoms, freedom from hunger, discomfort, pai…

Many big cats live in poorly regulated roadside zoos and facilities that adopt the sanctuary label without meeting its standards, raising acute welfare concerns. This overview surveys the issues disti…

Boarding catteries, breeding catteries and long-term confinement settings raise welfare considerations distinct from short shelter stays. This overview surveys research on cats in these environments:…

Unowned free-roaming cats present distinct welfare questions, and trap-neuter-return is the main alternative to lethal control for managing them. This overview surveys the welfare science around commu…

Safari parks house big cats, especially lions, in large drive-through enclosures that visitors traverse by vehicle, a model with distinctive welfare features. This overview surveys the welfare conside…

Fishing cats are tightly bound to wetlands, with partially webbed feet and fish-catching behaviour that make them among the most habitat-specialised felids and therefore acutely vulnerable to wetland…

This overview synthesizes evidence that wetland destruction and degradation are the overriding threats to the fishing cat. Drainage for agriculture and settlement, conversion to aquaculture, pollution…

Lion hunting success varies enormously with prey species, group size, habitat cover, time of day, and moon phase. This overview synthesizes field studies showing that lions exploit darkness and vegeta…

Each whisker is a passive shaft, and the real sensing happens at its base, a point this overview reviews. The follicle housing a vibrissa is packed with mechanoreceptors that detect how the whisker be…

Some animals sweep their whiskers rhythmically to explore, and this overview reviews the extent and nature of active whisker movement in cats. While cats do not whisk as continuously as rats, they can…

The brain devotes substantial tissue to processing whisker input, and this overview reviews how vibrissal touch is represented in the feline somatosensory cortex. The orderly array of muzzle whiskers…