🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

The IUCN Cat Specialist Group convened a Cat Classification Task Force to reconcile decades of conflicting felid taxonomy with modern genetic and morphological evidence. The resulting consensus recogn…

Andrew C. Kitchener, Christiane Breitenmoser-Wursten, Eduardo Eizirik, et al. (Cat Classification Task Force) · Cat News Special Issue · 2017

This comprehensive revision, produced by the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group, synthesized morphological, molecular, and biogeographic evidence to propose a consistent, e…

Kitchener AC, Breitenmoser-Wursten C, Eizirik E, Gentry A, Werdelin L, Wilting A, et al. · Cat News Special Issue · 2017

This morphological companion to the molecular split examined pelage and skull characters across clouded leopards and found that Sunda island animals differ consistently from mainland ones. The authors…

Kitchener AC, Beaumont MA, Richardson D · Current Biology · 2006

This landmark study produced the first globally consistent, high-resolution maps of forest loss and gain in the 21st century using satellite imagery, quantifying deforestation at fine scale across the…

Hansen, M.C., Potapov, P.V., Moore, R., Hancher, M., Turubanova, S.A., Tyukavina, A., et al. · Science · 2013

This study used multiple genetic markers to compare mainland and Sunda island clouded leopards and found divergence comparable to that between well-recognized cat species. The authors showed that clou…

Buckley-Beason VA, Johnson WE, Nash WG, et al. · Current Biology · 2006

Wielebnowski and colleagues studied the notoriously difficult-to-breed North American clouded leopard population, using faecal corticoid monitoring across many individuals. They linked elevated adrena…

Wielebnowski NC, Fletchall N, Carlstead K, Busso JM, Brown JL · Zoo Biology · 2002

This study used fecal glucocorticoid monitoring to investigate why captive clouded leopards often breed poorly and show high rates of mate aggression. The authors related adrenal hormone output to hou…

Wielebnowski NC, Fletchall N, Carlstead K, Busso JM, Brown JL · Zoo Biology · 2002

This comparative study applied trait ratings to multiple felid species, including domestic cats, African lions, snow leopards, clouded leopards, and Scottish wildcats, to ask whether personality dimen…

Marieke Gartner, David Powell, Alexander Weiss · Journal of Comparative Psychology · 2014

Gartner, Powell and Weiss applied systematic personality assessment to four felid species, having keepers rate individuals on behavioural traits and then analysing the underlying structure. They ident…

Gartner MC, Powell DM, Weiss A · Journal of Comparative Psychology · 2014

This morphological study reconstructed relationships among the pantherine cats while explicitly incorporating fossil taxa and testing how missing data affect tree inference. Working from cranial and s…

Christiansen P · Cladistics · 2008

This overview examines clouded leopard activity, which camera-trap studies generally describe as nocturnal and crepuscular, with some daytime movement, and a strong association with forest cover at al…

This overview reviews the comparatively understudied conflict between people and smaller wild cats, including clouded leopards, in Southeast Asian forest-agriculture mosaics. It synthesises scattered…

Southeast Asia harbors a rich diversity of poorly studied forest cats, from clouded leopards to marbled cats, leopard cats, and others, and this overview examines the sparse but growing movement resea…

Clouded leopards are among the most accomplished climbers of all cats, and this overview reviews the adaptations behind their arboreal skill. Like the margay, they possess highly flexible ankle joints…

Clouded leopards, both the mainland and Sunda species, are secretive, partly arboreal forest cats whose cloud-shaped coat blotches allow individual identification from camera-trap images. This overvie…

Clouded leopards possess the largest canine teeth relative to skull size of any living cat, and this overview reviews the morphology and its implications. The long upper canines and wide gape have inv…

Captive management of clouded leopards has been notably challenging, and this overview reviews research aimed at improving it. Breeding programs have struggled with mate aggression, in which males may…

Dietary information for clouded leopards, drawn from scattered observations, scat, and prey remains, indicates a broad diet spanning arboreal and terrestrial prey. This overview synthesizes records of…

Clouded leopards occupy forests from the Himalayan foothills and northeast India through Southeast Asia, with a distinct species on Borneo and Sumatra. This overview compiles records describing their…

Clouded leopards are forest-dependent cats of Southeast Asia and the Himalayan foothills whose arboreal habits tie them closely to intact forest. This overview surveys their distribution, sensitivity…

Clouded leopards have a difficult captive breeding history marked by severe, sometimes fatal aggression by males toward females during pairing. This overview surveys the welfare and management science…

Recognizing two clouded leopard species reshaped conservation planning across Southeast Asia. This overview explains how the split meant that the Sunda clouded leopard, confined to Borneo and Sumatra,…

Clouded leopards have remarkable skulls and the longest canine teeth relative to body size of any living cat, and cranial characters contributed to recognizing two species. This overview discusses how…

The physical environment of an enclosure, including space, complexity, seclusion, and the ability to avoid disturbance, influences the reproductive function of captive cats. This overview surveys how…

Measuring glucocorticoid stress hormones in feces provides a noninvasive way to assess how stress relates to reproductive function in cats. This overview surveys the use of fecal glucocorticoid monito…

GPS collars do not always acquire a position, and crucially, the probability of failure is not random: dense canopy, steep terrain, and an animal resting in a cave or thicket all suppress fixes. This…

The clouded leopard, long treated as a single species, was shown by genetic and morphological analysis to comprise two distinct species: the mainland clouded leopard and the Sunda clouded leopard of B…

For much of the twentieth century, cat classification rested on coat patterns, skull morphology, and geography, producing many poorly supported species and subspecies. This overview surveys how molecu…

Integrative taxonomy combines independent data classes (morphology, mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, ecology, biogeography, and behavior) to delimit taxa, and it has become the standard for resolving ca…

The history of cat classification is largely a story of tension and eventual integration between morphological and molecular approaches. This overview compares the two: morphology, including skull mor…