🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

The response to catnip and related iridoids is not unique to domestic cats; various wild felids also react. This overview surveys reports that some big cats, such as lions and others, show interest in…

With age, the iris of a cat's eye can thin and degenerate, a condition called iris atrophy that may affect how the pupil responds to light. This overview surveys age-related iris atrophy in cats, in w…

The vertical-slit pupil is produced by a specific arrangement of iris muscles that constrict and dilate the aperture into a line rather than a shrinking circle. This overview surveys the anatomy of th…

The lens of the eye changes with age, and older cats commonly develop nuclear sclerosis, a hardening and clouding of the lens that can affect vision. This overview surveys age-related lens changes in…

Beyond the well-established senses, cats are sometimes credited with additional perceptual abilities whose evidence is limited or debated. This overview surveys lesser-known and disputed feline sensor…

The correlation between vertical-slit pupils and ambush predation has become a touchstone example of how anatomy reflects ecology. This overview surveys the broader argument that slit pupils benefit p…

Color and fine daytime detail both depend on cones, and the cat retina simply has few of them relative to rods. This overview surveys estimates of cone abundance and distribution, which show cones con…

While cats are celebrated for ultrasonic sensitivity, they also retain good hearing at lower frequencies, giving them an unusually broad overall range. This overview surveys the lower end of the felin…

Cats sense chemicals through two partly distinct systems: the main olfactory system for general smells and the accessory, vomeronasal system for pheromones and social signals. This overview surveys th…

A kitten's visual acuity is poor when the eyes first open and improves substantially over the following weeks as the visual system matures. This overview surveys the development of feline acuity, whic…

When a whisker touches an object, the contact bends the shaft and concentrates mechanical stress at its base, where the follicle receptors sit. This overview surveys the biomechanics of whisker deflec…

A vertical-slit pupil interacts with the lens in ways that may help correct for chromatic aberration, the tendency of a lens to focus different colors at slightly different distances. This overview su…

Feline predation draws on vision, hearing, smell, and touch in a coordinated sequence, and the brain integrates these channels to guide the hunt. This overview surveys multisensory integration in hunt…

The interior of the cat's nose contains intricate scrolled bones called turbinates that are covered with olfactory and respiratory tissue. This overview surveys how the feline turbinates increase the…

Newborn kittens are blind and deaf, so smell and touch guide their earliest survival behaviors, especially locating the mother's nipple to nurse. This overview surveys how neonatal kittens rely on olf…

The classic catnip reaction is driven by nepetalactone, a volatile iridoid compound in the catnip plant that cats detect through smell. This overview surveys how nepetalactone is thought to act, bindi…

Most mammals, including cats, have less elaborate color vision than birds, reptiles, or many fish, a pattern often traced to a nocturnal phase early in mammalian evolution. This overview surveys the h…

The feline response to silver vine begins when olfactory sensory neurons detect nepetalactol and related iridoids. This overview surveys how the cat's sense of smell registers these compounds and init…

Within the vestibular system, the otolith organs, the utricle and saccule, sense linear acceleration and the pull of gravity, complementing the rotation-sensing semicircular canals. This overview surv…

Pheromones are chemical signals that convey information between members of a species, and cats rely heavily on them for social and territorial communication. This overview surveys how cats detect pher…

The ultimate limit on night vision is how efficiently an eye captures and counts individual photons. This overview surveys research framing the cat eye in terms of quantum catch, including the contrib…

The functional payoff of the tapetum lucidum is that it gives photons a second pass through the photoreceptor layer, raising the probability of absorption and effectively boosting sensitivity. This ov…

The shape of the external ear filters incoming sound in frequency-dependent ways, creating spectral cues the brain uses to judge a sound's elevation and to refine localization. This overview surveys h…

Beyond the vestibular system, cats rely on proprioception, the sense of the position and movement of their own limbs and body, to move with precision. This overview surveys feline proprioception, supp…

A cat's pupils change not only with light level but with arousal, fear, and excitement, making the pupil a window onto both optics and emotional state. This overview surveys the dual control of the fe…

Pupil size interacts with how an eye focuses, since a smaller aperture increases depth of field while a larger one demands more precise accommodation. This overview surveys how the feline pupil and le…

Researchers and illustrators have attempted to simulate feline color perception by combining dichromatic cone data with measured acuity. This overview surveys those reconstructions, which typically re…

The feline retina can degenerate with age or disease, leading to gradual or sudden vision loss in older cats. This overview surveys retinal degeneration in aging cats, which may arise from age-related…

Retinal ganglion cells are the output neurons of the eye, and their density sets an upper limit on visual acuity. In cats, ganglion cell counts peak in the area centralis and along a horizontal visual…

Rhodopsin, the light-sensitive pigment packed into rod outer segments, is the molecular engine of night vision. This survey reviews work on feline rod photoreceptor structure, the stacked membrane dis…