Research overview: behavioural plasticity versus evolution in urban felids

A central question in urban ecology is whether animals cope with cities through flexible behaviour within a generation or through heritable evolutionary change over generations. This overview synthesises research and theory on this distinction as applied to felids, examining evidence that urban tolerance in cats rests largely on behavioural plasticity, while considering the potential for selection on boldness, activity timing and physiology in long-isolated populations. It examines the challenge of detecting rapid evolution in slow-reproducing carnivores and the role of individual variation as evolutionary raw material. The synthesis frames the plasticity-versus-evolution question as a frontier in understanding how felids occupy the urban niche.