🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

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

Captive cats fed soft, processed diets commonly develop dental disease such as gingivitis, calculus and tooth fractures, whereas chewing on bone, hide and connective tissue provides natural abrasion a…

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…

The serval and the caracal are medium-sized African cats of the caracal lineage, both relatively widespread but facing localized pressures. This overview surveys their genetic relationships within the…

Research at a heavily industrialised and agricultural site in South Africa documented unexpectedly high serval densities, challenging assumptions that intensively modified land cannot support felids.…

Feeding captive non-domestic cats well requires meeting obligate-carnivore requirements for taurine, arginine, vitamin A, arachidonic acid and appropriate calcium-to-phosphorus ratios, which whole pre…

Because cats rely heavily on smell for hunting, social communication and exploring their world, scent-based enrichment is a natural fit for felid welfare. This overview surveys studies adding novel od…

Operant conditioning with positive reinforcement underpins modern husbandry training, allowing cats to cooperate in shifting, crating, weighing and medical procedures. This overview surveys the learni…

Play, especially object play that mimics hunting, is both an indicator and a contributor to good welfare in cats, and its absence can signal stress or poor environments. This overview surveys research…

Wild cats spend much of their active time searching for, stalking and processing prey, whereas captive cats are often fed a single quick meal. This overview surveys husbandry research on scatter feedi…

Camera-trap and telemetry studies describe the serval as primarily crepuscular and nocturnal, with notable bouts of diurnal activity especially in cooler weather or where human disturbance is low. Thi…

The serval ranges widely across sub-Saharan Africa, with relict populations in the far north, and is closely tied to well-watered grasslands, reedbeds, and the margins of wetlands and floodplains. Thi…

The serval possesses proportionally the largest ears of any cat, and research into its sensory ecology emphasizes how acoustic detection underpins its hunting. This overview draws together evidence th…

This overview examines the serval ecological dependence on moist habitats, drawing on studies from East and Southern African wetlands. Floodplains, papyrus swamps, and grassy marsh edges concentrate t…

The serval, a long-legged grassland and wetland specialist, persists in agricultural and even industrial landscapes across parts of Africa, exploiting rodent-rich pastures, wetlands and field margins…

A growing body of camera-trap work documents servals persisting in agricultural mosaics, irrigated farmland, and even some peri-urban edges where wetlands and rodents remain. This overview synthesizes…

The caracal lineage groups three African cats: the caracal, the serval, and the African golden cat. This overview surveys the molecular evidence uniting these morphologically diverse species into a si…

The serval, a long-legged African grassland cat, is the third member of the caracal lineage alongside the caracal and African golden cat. This overview reviews its taxonomic placement in the genus Lep…

Foraging studies cast the serval as one of the most specialized rodent hunters among cats, with rodents often making up the large majority of prey by number. This overview synthesizes observations of…

Small wild cats, servals, ocelots, fishing cats, sand cats, margays and others, are widely held yet receive less welfare research attention than big cats. This overview surveys their husbandry needs:…

This synthesis reviews the conservation standing of the serval, broadly assessed as low risk across much of sub-Saharan Africa but with severely reduced or vanished populations at the northern and sou…

Lyons, Young and Deag surveyed multiple felid species across enclosures differing in size, complexity and feeding routine to identify what most affects behaviour. They found that enclosure usage and a…

Lyons J, Young RJ, Deag JM · Zoo Biology · 1997