Research overview: behavioral measures of feline olfactory acuity

Beyond anatomy and genetics, behavioral tests reveal how keenly cats can detect and discriminate odors. This overview surveys studies and observations of feline olfactory acuity, including the use of scent in locating food, recognizing individuals, and investigating the environment. Cats can detect odors at low concentrations and distinguish among complex scents, abilities important for hunting, feeding, and social life. The survey discusses how olfactory acuity is assessed, the challenges of designing odor-discrimination tasks for cats, and the role of smell in appetite and food acceptance. It frames behavioral evidence as the functional complement to molecular and anatomical accounts of olfaction. Understanding feline olfactory acuity in behavioral terms shows what the cat's smelling apparatus actually accomplishes in daily life, from deciding whether food is palatable to reading the chemical history of a shared space, grounding the sense of smell in observable performance.