Research overview: dominance relationships in groups of cats

Whether cats form dominance hierarchies has long been debated, since their social structure differs from the linear hierarchies of many group-living mammals. This overview surveys research on agonistic and affiliative interactions in cat colonies and households, evidence for despotic or loosely ordered relationships, the role of resource control and spatial priority, and how status is signalled through posture and access rather than overt fighting. It discusses the difficulty of detecting hierarchy in a species that avoids conflict through avoidance and time-sharing. The topic clarifies how social order among cats is maintained more through spacing and signalling than through ranked confrontation.