🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

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

Carlstead, Brown and Seidensticker conducted an early, influential study using non-invasive hormone measures on small felids. They manipulated the housing of leopard cats, adding and removing hiding p…

Carlstead K, Brown JL, Seidensticker J · Zoo Biology · 1993

At the 5,300-year-old farming village of Quanhucun in central China, Hu and colleagues combined zooarchaeology with stable isotope analysis of cat, rodent, human and dog bones to reconstruct an early…

Yaowu Hu, Songmei Hu, Weilin Wang, et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2014

This molecular study compared the mitochondrial DNA of Japan's two wild cats, the Iriomote cat and the Tsushima cat, with that of the mainland leopard cat and found that both belong to the same lineag…

Masuda R, Yoshida MC · Zoological Science · 1995

When the Iriomote cat was discovered on the small Japanese island of Iriomote, it was originally described as a strikingly distinct felid, placed in its own genus and species and treated as a living r…

Imaizumi Y · 1967

Leopard cats occur not only in deep farmland but at the fringes of towns and suburbs across parts of Asia, suggesting considerable tolerance of human activity. This overview synthesises camera-trap an…

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…

Cities support large populations of commensal rodents fed by human waste, and these rodents form a critical prey subsidy for small and medium urban felids from bobcats to leopard cats and jungle cats.…

The fishing cat is a wetland specialist of South and Southeast Asia, increasingly threatened by the loss and fragmentation of marshes and mangroves. This overview surveys the limited but growing genet…

Recognizing two leopard cat species raises the practical question of where the boundary between them lies. This overview examines how the mainland leopard cat, Prionailurus bengalensis, and the Sunda…

An overview of how co-occurring small felids divide prey to coexist, a less-studied counterpart to big-cat guild ecology. Where species such as ocelots, margays, oncillas, jungle cats, leopard cats an…

Tea, coffee and rubber plantations across South and Southeast Asia form extensive human-modified habitats used by leopards, leopard cats, jungle cats and fishing cats with varying tolerance. This over…

Fragmentation of lowland habitat by roads, settlement and intensive agriculture can erode genetic connectivity in leopard cat populations even where the species remains present. This overview synthesi…

Pallas's cat, or the manul, is a small, densely furred cat of the Central Asian steppe whose phylogenetic placement was clarified by molecular data linking it to the leopard cat lineage. This overview…

Several popular domestic cat breeds were created by crossing house cats with wild felid species, including the Bengal from the Asian leopard cat, the Savannah from the serval, and the Chausie from the…

Vehicle collisions are a leading direct cause of death for felids in human-dominated landscapes worldwide, from pumas on Los Angeles freeways to leopard cats on Taiwan rural roads and fishing cats in…

The leopard cat lineage offers a natural laboratory for studying how island isolation shapes felid taxonomy. This overview surveys how leopard cats colonized numerous islands across Asia, from Japan t…

This overview examines leopard cat activity, which camera-trap and telemetry studies generally describe as predominantly nocturnal and crepuscular, with flexibility according to prey, season, and dist…

Leopard cats occasionally prey on free-ranging chickens, generating conflict with rural households whose tolerance is pivotal to the species survival in unprotected farmland. This overview synthesises…

Dietary studies portray the leopard cat as a generalist predator with a strong reliance on small rodents, supplemented by birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and insects. This overview synthesizes scat…

Leopard cats are efficient predators of rodents and other small prey, and in agricultural mosaics they may provide pest-suppression services that benefit farmers. This overview synthesises scat and pr…

The leopard cat is the most widespread small cat in Asia, ranging from the Russian Far East and Korea through China, the Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia to the islands of Sundaland and the Phi…

The leopard cat is the wild ancestor of the domestic Bengal cat breed, and this overview reviews the biology and conservation implications of that connection. Hybridization between leopard cats and do…

The leopard cat has colonized many islands across its range, giving rise to distinct populations and subspecies, and this overview reviews their biology and significance. Island forms, including those…

Although all modern house cats descend from the Near Eastern wildcat, archaeological cats at early Chinese farming villages were later identified as leopard cats, a different genus-level relative. Thi…

The leopard cat is notably tolerant of agricultural landscapes, and this overview reviews research on these populations. Camera-trap and telemetry studies document the species using plantations, rice…

Taiwan leopard cat population persists almost entirely outside protected areas, in a patchwork of low-elevation farmland, betel-nut and fruit orchards, secondary forest and rural settlements in Miaoli…

Camera-trap surveys aimed at tigers and leopards routinely capture a hidden bycatch of small Asian cats, marbled cat, leopard cat, golden cat, jungle cat, and others, providing rare records of poorly…

A recurring complication in felid systematics is that trees built from mitochondrial DNA often disagree with those from nuclear DNA. This overview explains why: the maternally inherited mitochondrion…

Protecting livestock and poultry from felid predation through non-lethal means is central to reducing conflict and retaliatory killing at the urban and agricultural edge. This overview synthesises res…