🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

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

Mellen surveyed husbandry across many institutions holding small exotic cats and used multiple regression to identify which factors predicted breeding success. Strikingly, the strongest predictors wer…

Mellen JD · Zoo Biology · 1991

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…

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.…

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…

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…

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 ability to hide and break line of sight is a core feline coping mechanism, and a recurring finding across both small wild cats and domestic cats is that providing refuges reduces stress hormones a…

Where small wild felids overlap with free-ranging domestic cats around settlements, hybridisation and disease transmission can threaten the genetic integrity and health of wild populations. This overv…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Across their range, leopard cats living in farmland and forest-edge mosaics suffer heavy road mortality, a leading documented cause of death in well-studied populations such as Taiwan. This overview s…

The Tsushima cat, restricted to Tsushima Island between Japan and Korea, is a critically endangered population of the leopard cat. This overview examines its taxonomic status, established by molecular…

The genus Prionailurus includes not only leopard cats but also the fishing cat and flat-headed cat, specialized wetland felids. This overview examines their placement within the leopard cat lineage an…

The leopard cat is the most widespread small cat in Asia, occupying habitats from Siberian forests to tropical islands, and its broad range produces extensive geographic variation. This overview surve…

The rusty-spotted cat, one of the smallest of all cats, is found in India and Sri Lanka and belongs to the leopard cat lineage. This overview reviews its placement within the genus Prionailurus, where…

The Iriomote cat is a celebrated example of taxonomic demotion in cats. This overview traces how a felid first hailed as a unique living fossil in its own genus was, through molecular evidence, shown…

Molecular phylogeography revealed that leopard cats on the Sunda islands of Southeast Asia diverge deeply from mainland leopard cats, leading to recognition of a separate species, the Sunda leopard ca…

Faecal glucocorticoid metabolite monitoring is the workhorse of felid stress research because it avoids the confound of capture and restraint, but it requires species-specific validation to be meaning…

Because leopard cats depend on farmland outside reserves, conservation increasingly relies on incentivising landholders to farm in ways compatible with the species. This overview synthesises evaluatio…

Shepherdson, Carlstead, Mellen and Seidensticker tested whether changing how food is presented could enrich the behaviour of small captive cats. Instead of single predictable meals, they provided food…

Shepherdson DJ, Carlstead K, Mellen JD, Seidensticker J · Zoo Biology · 1993