🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Individual cats often favour one paw when reaching for food or stepping, and laterality research has linked this to underlying brain organisation and even temperament. This overview surveys studies me…

Reliable personality assessment helps match cats to homes and tailor care, and this overview surveys research developing and validating temperament tests for shelter and pet cats. It covers behavioura…

Consistent individual differences in cats extend to how they cope with stress, linking behaviour to physiology. This overview surveys research relating feline personality dimensions such as boldness a…

The cat-human relationship has measurable physiological dimensions, and this overview surveys research probing them. It covers studies of behavioural and hormonal responses, including investigations o…

Play is a key part of the human-cat bond and an outlet for predatory motivation, and this overview surveys research on interactive and object play in companion cats. It covers how cats respond to toys…

Domestic and small wild cats are generalist ambush hunters that adjust tactics to prey type, alternating sit-and-wait at burrows and active mobile searching. This overview synthesises diet and behavio…

How cats approach novel problems reveals their cognitive style and motivation. This overview surveys research using puzzle feeders, string-pulling tasks, and detour problems, examining persistence, th…

Some of the founding experiments of comparative psychology used cats in puzzle boxes to study how animals learn to escape confinement. This overview surveys the historical work in which cats gradually…

Numerical cognition has been studied extensively in birds and primates, and a smaller body of work asks whether cats discriminate quantities. This overview surveys experiments testing whether cats can…

Cats form bonds with specific people, and research has probed how they recognise their humans. This overview surveys evidence that cats identify owners primarily through voice, as shown in vocal-recog…

Aggression in cats takes several forms, and redirected aggression, in which a cat aroused by one stimulus attacks a nearby individual, is among the most disruptive in homes. This overview surveys rese…

Solitary and group-living cats alike rely on a network of chemical signals to coordinate behaviour without constant contact. This overview surveys research on the feline scent-communication system, in…

Cats deposit scent from glands on the face, flanks, and tail base when they rub against objects, people, and one another, a behaviour called bunting or allorubbing. This overview surveys research on t…

Felids scratch trees and other surfaces and create ground scrapes that combine visual marks with scent from glands in the paws. This overview surveys research on the marking function of scratching acr…

Self-control tasks, such as choosing a larger delayed reward over a smaller immediate one, probe impulse regulation and have been studied across many species. This overview surveys the limited researc…

A growing body of research asks whether cats are sensitive to whether a human is paying attention to them, a basic component of social cognition. This overview surveys experiments testing whether cats…

Ostensive signals such as eye contact and directed speech can mark communication as relevant, and research asks whether cats are sensitive to them. This overview surveys studies on cats' responses to…

Although often called solitary, domestic cats display a flexible social organisation that depends heavily on the distribution of food and shelter. This overview synthesises decades of observation show…

Navigating and exploiting a home range requires cats to build and use spatial knowledge of their environment. This overview surveys research on how cats learn the layout of their territory, the locati…

How long and how accurately can a cat remember where an object or prey item disappeared? This overview surveys research on feline spatial memory, including delayed-search tasks measuring how memory fo…

String-pulling tasks, in which an animal must pull a string to obtain attached food, test understanding of means-end connections and physical relations. This overview surveys research with cats on sin…

Cats sometimes kill more prey than they consume, a phenomenon called surplus killing that appears when vulnerable prey is abundant and the killing response is repeatedly triggered. This overview surve…

Kittens often establish a teat order, returning preferentially to particular nipples during nursing, a phenomenon studied as a window into early learning and competition. This overview surveys researc…

One of the most robust axes of feline personality is a bold-to-shy or confident-to-fearful continuum that shapes how cats respond to novelty, strangers, and handling. This overview surveys research on…

Roughly two-thirds of domestic cats display a stereotyped response to catnip, sniffing, licking, rolling, and rubbing, triggered by the compound nepetalactone acting through the olfactory and vomerona…

Play is energetically costly and potentially risky, yet pervasive in young cats, prompting debate over its functions. This overview surveys the major hypotheses, including play as practice for predati…

The feline killing bite is precisely targeted to the nape, where the canines wedge between cervical vertebrae to sever or crush the spinal cord. This overview surveys research on how cats achieve this…

Purring is most associated with contentment, but cats also purr when injured, frightened, giving birth, or near death, prompting research into its varied functions. This overview surveys evidence that…

Adult cats rarely meow at one another but meow frequently at people, leading to the hypothesis that the meow has been shaped by life alongside humans. This overview surveys research comparing the call…

If cats form attachments, their owners might serve as a secure base that buffers stress in novel or threatening situations. This overview surveys research testing the secure-base effect in cats, inclu…