🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

This influential review synthesised how animals adjust behaviour to survive in cities, organising responses into categories such as altered activity timing, boldness, foraging on anthropogenic food, a…

Lowry H, Lill A, Wong BBM · Biological Reviews · 2013

This widely cited review examined how carnivores exploit cities, surveying which traits predispose species to urban living and how urban carnivores differ in diet, ranging, activity and behaviour from…

Bateman PW, Fleming PA · Journal of Zoology · 2012

This study recovered mitochondrial genomes from the extinct scimitar-toothed cat Homotherium using ancient DNA, including a specimen from the permafrost, to place the sabertooths relative to living ca…

Johanna L. A. Paijmans, Michael Hofreiter, Ross Barnett, et al. · Current Biology · 2017

Using GPS-tracking data from many mammal species worldwide, this study found that animals in areas with high human footprint moved substantially shorter distances than those in wilder areas, indicatin…

Tucker MA, Bohning-Gaese K, Fagan WF, Fryxell JM, et al · Science · 2018

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES, governs cross-border trade in wildlife, and the world's big cats are listed on its Appendix I, banning commercial international trad…

Key Biodiversity Areas are sites identified as significant for the global persistence of biodiversity, and they offer a framework for prioritizing places critical to big cats. This overview surveys re…

Recovering DNA from extinct cats and historical museum specimens requires specialized techniques to cope with degraded, fragmented, and contaminated genetic material. This overview surveys how researc…

Urban noise from traffic, construction and human activity can mask acoustic cues, induce stress and alter the behaviour of wildlife, including felids that rely on hearing for hunting and vigilance. Th…

Artificial light at night is a pervasive feature of cities that can disrupt the nocturnal felids most reliant on darkness for hunting and movement. This overview synthesises research on how light poll…

Across the felid family, the capacity to flexibly adjust activity timing, space use, diet and risk responses largely determines which species can live near people. This overview synthesises evidence t…

A central question in urban ecology is whether animals cope with cities through flexible behaviour within a generation or through heritable evolutionary change over generations. This overview synthesi…

Camera traps, often paired with individual identification by coat patterns and spatial capture-recapture models, are a cornerstone method for studying secretive felids in human-dominated landscapes. T…

Artificial light at night can disrupt the internal circadian clocks that govern activity, hormone cycles and reproduction in animals, with potential consequences for nocturnal carnivores. This overvie…

Citizen science, from sighting and roadkill reporting to camera-trap and tracking projects, has become a powerful tool for monitoring urban felids and engaging the public in coexistence. This overview…

Climate change interacts with urbanisation to reshape the conditions felids face near cities, altering prey availability, water resources, heat exposure, fire regimes and the viability of corridors. T…

Climate change poses varied threats to the world's cats, and assessing which species and populations are most vulnerable is increasingly important for prioritization. This overview surveys research on…

Light and noise rarely act alone; in cities they combine with human presence to create a degraded sensory landscape that wildlife must navigate. This overview synthesises research treating sensory pol…

Across the cat family, similar coat phenotypes such as melanism, pale or white morphs, and spotted-to-striped pattern shifts have arisen repeatedly in different lineages. This overview surveys the evi…

As awareness of light pollution grows, planners increasingly consider wildlife-sensitive lighting and the preservation of dark corridors to maintain connectivity for nocturnal animals. This overview s…

Conservation managers must decide which populations to treat as separate units for protection, breeding, and translocation, and genetics provides the primary evidence. This overview surveys the concep…

Reliable anthropogenic food can boost carnivore survival and reproduction, producing higher densities and altered population dynamics in subsidised urban environments. This overview synthesises resear…

Environmental DNA, the genetic material that animals shed into their surroundings, offers a powerful new way to detect elusive cats without observing them directly. This overview surveys how environme…

The IUCN Red List provides the standard framework for assessing the extinction risk of the world's cats, guiding conservation priorities and tracking changes in status over time. This overview surveys…

Wildlife corridors aim to reconnect fragmented cat populations, and genetics provides a direct test of whether they actually restore gene flow. This overview surveys how landscape and population genet…

Genetic rescue refers to deliberately introducing individuals from another population to boost the fitness of a small, inbred population through new genetic variation. This overview surveys the concep…

In many cats, one sex disperses farther than the other, with males typically moving while females remain near their natal range, a pattern that leaves distinct genetic footprints. This overview survey…

The sand cat is a small felid of the deserts of North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, with adaptations for life in extreme arid heat. This overview surveys its placement within the Felis li…

Genomic erosion refers to the cumulative loss of genetic diversity and accumulation of harmful variation that accompanies population decline, and cats provide some of its clearest examples. This overv…

Parks, greenbelts, riparian corridors, vacant lots and vegetated drainage form a network of green infrastructure that urban felids exploit for shelter, hunting and movement. This overview synthesises…

Concentrated, predictable food in cities allows carnivores to meet their needs over smaller areas, contributing to the strikingly compressed home ranges documented in urban felids from leopards to pum…