🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

This study recorded meows from domestic cats across behavioural contexts and analysed their acoustic structure, also testing whether human listeners could assign calls to context. Meows were acoustica…

Nicholas Nicastro, Michael Owren · Journal of Comparative Psychology · 2003

This landmark ethological treatise compiled decades of close observation into a comprehensive description of feline behaviour, with especially detailed analysis of the predatory sequence: the stalk, t…

Paul Leyhausen · 1979

This study tested whether cats modify their behaviour according to their owner's displayed emotion, comparing happy and angry expressions. Cats showed behaviours consistent with detecting the emotiona…

Moriah Galvan, Jennifer Vonk · Animal Cognition · 2016

Adapting the Strange Situation Test used with infants and dogs, researchers observed how cats behaved when their owner left and returned. Cats displayed distinct attachment styles: secure individuals…

Kristyn Vitale, Alexandra Behnke, Monique Udell · Current Biology · 2019

This experiment tested whether cats hold a spatial representation of unseen humans. A cat was placed in a room while its owner's voice was played from a speaker at one location, then, after a delay, f…

Saho Takagi and colleagues · PLOS ONE · 2021

Using a habituation-dishabituation design, researchers played domestic cats recordings of their owner's voice interspersed with strangers calling their name. Cats showed orienting responses such as ea…

Atsuko Saito, Kazutaka Shinozuka · Animal Cognition · 2013

This study examined whether cats are sensitive to the high-pitched, sing-song register people use when addressing pets. Cats showed stronger behavioural responses when their own owner spoke in cat-dir…

Charlotte de Mouzon and colleagues · Animal Cognition · 2023

Researchers shook opaque containers in front of cats; some rattled and some were silent, and the experimenter then tipped each to reveal whether an object fell out. Cats explored more and showed expec…

Saho Takagi and colleagues · Animal Cognition · 2016

This long-term field study produced one of the most complete accounts of cheetah behavioural ecology, covering hunting, social organisation, male coalitions, maternal care, and cub mortality. Among it…

Tim Caro · 1994

Lionesses in a pride synchronise births and raise cubs in a communal creche, and this study examined how milk is shared. Mothers nursed their own cubs preferentially but tolerated suckling by related…

Anne Pusey, Craig Packer · Behavioral Ecology · 1994

Researchers tested whether cats, like dogs, can use a human pointing gesture to locate hidden food. Cats successfully chose the indicated container above chance, showing they can read this human commu…

Adam Miklosi and colleagues · Journal of Comparative Psychology · 2005

Using simulated intrusions, this study examined how lionesses behave when their pride must repel rivals. Individuals differed consistently: some females reliably led the advance toward broadcast roars…

Robert Heinsohn, Craig Packer · Science · 1995

Male lions hold tenure over prides in coalitions, and this study used genetic and behavioural data to show how coalition size and kinship shape reproductive sharing. Small coalitions were composed of…

Jon Grinnell, Craig Packer, Anne Pusey · Animal Behaviour · 1995

Building on emotion research, this study asked whether cats integrate visual and auditory emotional information from both humans and other cats. Cats were presented with facial expressions and vocalis…

Serenella d'Ingeo, Angelo Quaranta and colleagues · Animals · 2020

Across several experiments in homes and a cat cafe, cats were played sequences of four nouns matched in length and accent followed by their own name. Many cats habituated to the nouns but showed renew…

Atsuko Saito, Kazutaka Shinozuka, Yuki Ito, Toshikazu Hasegawa · Scientific Reports · 2019

When new males take over a pride they often kill dependent cubs to bring females back into estrus, and this study analysed how females resist. Lionesses defend cubs collectively, sometimes at injury r…

Craig Packer, Anne Pusey · The American Naturalist · 1983

Drawing on decades of Serengeti tracking, this study mapped how pride size and territory location determine reproductive success. Larger prides won contests over prime real estate, particularly river…

Anna Mosser, Craig Packer · Animal Behaviour · 2009

This study investigated the mechanism by which domestic cats and some other felids produce the continuous purr during both inhalation and exhalation. Measurements indicated that purring arises from ra…

Dawn Sissom, Donald Rice, Gustav Peters · Journal of Zoology · 1991

This experiment showed that kittens learned an instrumental task more readily by watching their own mother than by watching an unfamiliar adult female, and faster still than kittens learning alone. Th…

Phyllis Chesler · Science · 1969

This early comparative study assessed how cats and dogs solve visible and invisible displacement tasks, the benchmarks Piaget used to chart object permanence in human infants. Both species succeeded a…

Estrella Triana, Robert Pasnak · Animal Learning and Behavior · 1981

In this classic experiment, cats that watched a trained demonstrator perform a lever-press for food learned the response faster than cats given only individual trial-and-error experience. The study pr…

E. Roy John and colleagues · Science · 1968

Cheetahs breed poorly in captivity, and this study asked whether temperament was part of the problem. Keepers rated individual cheetahs on behavioural traits, yielding dimensions such as tense-fearful…

Nadja Wielebnowski · Zoo Biology · 1999

This comparative study applied trait ratings to multiple felid species, including domestic cats, African lions, snow leopards, clouded leopards, and Scottish wildcats, to ask whether personality dimen…

Marieke Gartner, David Powell, Alexander Weiss · Journal of Comparative Psychology · 2014

Cats are often described as crepuscular, most active at dawn and dusk, and this overview surveys research on how activity and hunting are scheduled in domestic and feral cats. Tracking studies show fl…

When threatened, cats deploy a graded set of agonistic signals including growls, hisses, spits, and yowls, paired with visual displays such as piloerection, arched back, and ear and pupil changes. Thi…

Cats living in groups engage in allogrooming, licking one another, and allorubbing, rubbing bodies together, behaviours that build and maintain social bonds. This overview surveys research on these af…

Allonursing, the nursing of non-offspring, is best documented in lions but reported in other group-living or colonial felid contexts, including domestic cat colonies. This overview surveys research on…

Even as predators, cats must avoid being killed, and anti-predator behaviour shapes their activity and space use. This overview surveys research on vigilance, refuge use, and avoidance in domestic and…

The jaguar is the largest American cat and a powerful solitary predator whose behaviour is studied through camera traps, telemetry, and acoustic monitoring. This overview surveys research on jaguar sp…

Cat domestication followed an unusual, largely commensal path, and this overview surveys research on the behavioural traits associated with it. It covers reduced fear and aggression toward humans, inc…