🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

This high-profile study coupled climate, prey, and disease dynamics with metapopulation modeling to project the fate of the critically endangered Iberian lynx. It found that standard reintroduction pl…

Fordham, D.A., Akcakaya, H.R., Araujo, M.B., Keith, D.A., Brook, B.W. · Nature Climate Change · 2013

This study documented a feline leukemia virus (FeLV) outbreak in the critically endangered Iberian lynx population of Donana, Spain. Through field surveillance, molecular diagnostics and pathology, th…

M. L. Meli, V. Cattori, F. Martínez, et al. · PLoS ONE · 2009

Ferreras analyzed how landscape structure governs movement between habitat patches in the Iberian lynx metapopulation of Donana and surrounding areas, showing that connectivity was asymmetrical, dispe…

Pablo Ferreras · Biological Conservation · 2001

The Andean cat appears to be a specialist predator of mountain vizcachas, colonial rodents of rocky high-Andean slopes, and this overview reviews the evidence and its implications. Diet studies and th…

By the early 2000s the Iberian lynx survived in just two isolated populations, in Doñana and the eastern Sierra Morena of southern Spain, each small, fragmented, and at acute risk of extinction. This…

The Iberian lynx recovery was sustained by a series of large, multi-year conservation projects supported substantially by the European Union's LIFE program, which financed breeding, reintroduction, ha…

The recovery of the Iberian lynx rests heavily on a coordinated captive-breeding and reintroduction program, and this overview reviews its components. Captive centers in Spain and Portugal have bred l…

The Iberian lynx is an extreme dietary specialist, relying on the European rabbit for the great majority of its diet, and this overview reviews the consequences of that dependence. Where rabbits are a…

The Iberian lynx, once the world's most endangered cat, has been the subject of intensive telemetry as part of a celebrated recovery program in Spain and Portugal. This overview describes how GPS coll…

The Iberian lynx, once the world most endangered cat, has staged a remarkable recovery, and this overview reviews its changing distribution. Reduced to a few hundred animals in two isolated population…

Having passed through a severe bottleneck, the Iberian lynx carries low genetic diversity and signs of inbreeding, especially in the historically isolated Doñana population. This overview surveys cons…

Having passed through a severe bottleneck, the Iberian lynx carries very low genetic diversity, and this overview reviews research on the resulting risks. Studies document signs of inbreeding, includi…

The Iberian lynx depends on Mediterranean scrubland and woodland mosaics that support dense rabbit populations and provide cover for hunting and denning. This overview surveys research on lynx habitat…

The Iberian lynx, once the world's most endangered cat, has been the focus of an intensive recovery program in which camera trapping plays a central monitoring role. This overview surveys how camera t…

An overview of how the Iberian lynx, the world's most specialized felid predator, depends almost entirely on European rabbits, and how rabbit declines drive lynx conservation crises. Rabbits typically…

Reintroduction and translocation were central to expanding the Iberian lynx from two relict populations to a network of populations across Spain and Portugal. This overview surveys research on how rel…

The Iberian lynx inhabits Mediterranean scrub and dehesa woodland in a region projected to become hotter and drier. This overview surveys how aridification, increased fire frequency, and shifting vege…

Because climate is shifting where suitable Iberian lynx habitat will lie, conservationists have debated assisted colonization, deliberately establishing populations in areas projected to become suitab…

When species cannot track shifting climate fast enough, assisted migration, deliberately moving them to newly suitable areas, is debated as a last resort. This overview surveys the arguments for and a…

The critically endangered Iberian lynx has been the focus of an intensive conservation breeding program supported by reproductive science. This overview surveys assisted-reproduction efforts for the s…

A survey of the broad, adaptable diet of the bobcat, which lets this mid-sized felid thrive across diverse North American habitats. Bobcats specialize on lagomorphs such as cottontails and jackrabbits…

European rabbit dynamics in Iberia are governed by an interaction of climate, vegetation, and disease, all of which bear on Iberian lynx survival. This overview surveys how temperature and rainfall in…

Climate change can expand the range of pathogens, parasites, and disease vectors, with potential consequences for wild cat health. This overview surveys how warming may alter the distribution of tick-…

This overview compares the four lynx species, the Eurasian, Canada, Iberian, and the bobcat, highlighting how a shared body plan has diversified across habitats and prey. All share short tails, ear tu…

Genetic tools have become central to small-cat conservation, and this overview reviews their applications. Non-invasive sampling of scats and hair allows researchers to confirm the presence of cryptic…

The critically endangered Iberian lynx has been the focus of intensive conservation medicine within recovery programs combining captive breeding, reintroduction, and disease management. Veterinary con…

For tiny, isolated felid populations, infectious disease can pose an extinction-level threat that compounds genetic and demographic vulnerabilities. This overview surveys how disease drives extinction…

When cats are reintroduced to restore populations, ongoing disease monitoring is essential to detect outbreaks early and protect the investment in recovery. This overview surveys the post-release heal…

Moving wild cats for reintroduction or genetic management carries the danger of moving pathogens with them, making disease risk assessment a core part of conservation translocations. This overview sur…

Free-roaming and feral domestic cats, vastly more numerous than their wild relatives, act as a reservoir for pathogens that can spill into endangered felids. This overview surveys the suite of disease…