🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

High-resolution GPS tracking combined with accelerometers and other biologgers has transformed the study of how felids behave near people, enabling fine-scale analysis of movement, activity, energetic…

The caracal ranges widely across Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and into India, and this broad distribution has produced named subspecies and biogeographic questions. This overview surveys car…

Telemetry studies describe the caracal as largely nocturnal and crepuscular, shifting toward stricter night activity where humans are present and showing more daytime movement in undisturbed or cooler…

Beyond the city edge, caracals occupy farmland and vineyards where predation on small livestock and game generates conflict and retaliatory killing across South Africa. This overview synthesises resea…

Caracals around Cape Town exploit a broad diet that shifts along the gradient from natural fynbos to vineyards and suburbs, taking native birds and mammals as well as human-associated prey such as int…

Dietary research portrays the caracal as a powerful, versatile predator able to take prey from small rodents to antelope several times its own weight. This overview synthesizes scat and kill studies i…

The caracal occupies one of the largest ranges of any small cat, spanning much of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and southwest and central Asia into India. This overview compiles distributional studie…

Across parts of Southern Africa and the Middle East, caracals are killed in large numbers as suspected predators of sheep and goats. This overview reviews studies quantifying the species role in lives…

The caracal muscular build, long hind limbs, and short tail equip it for explosive bursts and remarkable vertical leaps, and this overview reviews how form translates to function. Field and captive ob…

From leopards in Mumbai to pumas in Los Angeles, caracals in Cape Town and fishing cats in Colombo, a remarkable diversity of felids inhabits the worlds cities, offering a comparative window on urban…

Living alongside domestic cats, dogs and people exposes Cape Town caracals to pathogens and parasites that can affect their health. This overview synthesises serological and disease-ecology research o…

The reassignment of the African golden cat from the genus Profelis to Caracal is a clear example of molecular phylogenetics overriding morphology-based generic classification. This overview traces the…

The caracals of the Cape Peninsula occupy a near-island of habitat bounded by ocean, the city of Cape Town and agricultural land, raising concern about genetic isolation analogous to freeway-bounded f…

Documented first in southern California felids and later in Cape Town caracals, anticoagulant-rodenticide exposure in wild cats has emerged as a global phenomenon wherever predators hunt poisoned rode…

Landscape genetics, combining molecular markers with spatial models, has become essential for detecting how roads and development fragment felid populations and for prioritising connectivity. This ove…

The African golden cat was historically placed in its own genus, Profelis, but molecular phylogenetics revealed it belongs to the caracal lineage, prompting reclassification. This overview explains ho…

The caracal has become a charismatic emblem for urban-wildlife coexistence in Cape Town, and outreach is a deliberate component of its conservation. This overview synthesises work on how citizen-scien…

Caracals on the Cape Peninsula range widely across a landscape bisected by busy roads, and vehicle collisions are among the most significant documented causes of death. This overview synthesises GPS-t…

Documented anticoagulant exposure in Cape Town caracals has driven advocacy for safer rodent control, echoing regulatory debates in North America over the same compounds. This overview synthesises evi…

GPS-tracking of caracals on the Cape Peninsula has revealed how they configure home ranges across the fragmented landscape of Table Mountain National Park, suburbs, vineyards and coastline. This overv…

Stable-isotope analysis of felid tissues offers a powerful way to quantify how much of a cat diet derives from anthropogenic versus natural sources, complementing scat analysis. This overview synthesi…

With leopards long gone from the Cape Peninsula, the caracal is the last remaining wild felid predator around Cape Town, and the Urban Caracal Project has made it a flagship for urban wildlife researc…

Molecular work prompted a revision in which the African golden cat moved from Profelis into Caracal, formally becoming Caracal aurata. This overview examines the evidence and reasoning behind the chan…

The serval, a long-legged African grassland cat, is the third member of the caracal lineage alongside the caracal and African golden cat. This overview reviews its taxonomic placement in the genus Lep…

Long-term GPS-collar research on caracals around Cape Town has made this population one of the best-studied urban small-cat systems. This overview compiles findings on how caracals navigate a peninsul…

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…

This synthesis reviews the conservation standing of the caracal, generally assessed as low risk given its wide range and adaptability, while flagging serious regional concerns. It weighs heavy persecu…

This study from the Urban Caracal Project documented extensive exposure to anticoagulant rodenticides among caracals and other predators in and around Cape Town, South Africa. Screening showed that mo…

Serieys LEK, Bishop J, Okes N, Broadfield J, Winterton DJ, Poppenga RH, Viljoen S, Wayne RK, ORiain MJ · Science of the Total Environment · 2019