🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

A key reason cats see well in dim light is that many rods feed into each downstream neuron, a wiring strategy called convergence or spatial summation. By pooling the faint signals of hundreds of rods,…

The balance of rods to cones varies sharply across the surface of the cat retina, and that gradient shapes how cats see. Near the area centralis, the small region of peak cone density that handles the…

Cats use a suite of scent marks to communicate about territory, identity, and reproductive status, often without direct contact between individuals. This overview surveys how urine spraying, facial ru…

Behavioral and electrophysiological studies have probed how little light a cat needs to see, a quantity called the absolute or scotopic threshold. Estimates generally place feline low-light sensitivit…

Older cats can develop cognitive dysfunction, a decline in mental function that interacts with changes in the senses. This overview surveys the sensory aspects of feline cognitive dysfunction, in whic…

The two cone classes underlying feline color vision are usually described as a short-wavelength (blue-sensitive) cone and a longer-wavelength (green to yellow-sensitive) cone. This survey reviews micr…

Pinpointing the direction of a sound is essential for a predator that hunts partly by ear, and cats are skilled localizers. This overview surveys studies of feline sound localization acuity, which com…

In addition to bitter and savory tastes, cats detect sour and may have specialized responses to water, rounding out their taste capabilities. This overview surveys feline sour taste, which signals aci…

The spectral sensitivity of a cone, the wavelength at which it absorbs light most strongly, determines its contribution to color vision. This survey reviews measurements of feline cone photopigment pe…

The color of a cat's eyeshine, often green or yellow-green, reflects the wavelengths the tapetum returns most strongly. This overview surveys measurements of feline tapetal reflectance and discussion…

Taste in cats is mediated by taste buds distributed across the tongue within specialized papillae, the same basic apparatus found in other mammals. This overview surveys feline taste bud anatomy, incl…

Whether a cat eats a given food depends heavily on palatability, which integrates taste with smell, texture, and temperature. This overview surveys how feline taste contributes to food acceptance, wor…

As obligate carnivores, cats cannot synthesize enough of the amino acid taurine and must obtain it from animal-based diets to maintain healthy vision. This overview surveys the well-documented link be…

The Preyer reflex is a rapid, involuntary movement of the ear in response to a sudden sound, used historically as an indicator of hearing. This overview surveys how such reflexive ear responses appear…

Unlike the primate fovea, the cat's region of sharpest vision is a broader, shallower zone called the area centralis. This survey reviews what is known about its photoreceptor and ganglion cell compos…

Dichromatic animals typically perceive color along a single axis, and in cats that axis runs roughly from blue to yellow. This overview surveys evidence that cats discriminate short-wavelength from lo…

Cats possess a tapetum cellulosum, a type of reflective layer built from regular arrays of crystal-containing cells rather than the fibrous form seen in some other animals. This survey reviews studies…

Urine spraying is a primary scent-marking behavior in cats, depositing a chemically rich signal on vertical surfaces. This overview surveys the composition of sprayed urine, which contains compounds s…

One striking property of the cat's vertical-slit pupil is its enormous range of aperture, contracting to a narrow line in bright light and opening to a wide circle in darkness. This overview surveys h…

The head-related transfer function describes how the head, ears, and body filter sound before it reaches the eardrum, encoding directional information. This overview surveys work characterizing the ca…

Odor signals from the nose and vomeronasal organ are first processed in the brain by the main and accessory olfactory bulbs. This overview surveys the role of these structures in cats, where the main…

Smell is a major sense for cats, supported by an olfactory epithelium lined with sensory neurons expressing a large family of odorant receptor genes. This overview surveys what is known about the feli…

Cats are renowned for their ability to right themselves in mid-air and land on their feet, a behavior known as the righting reflex. This overview surveys how cats accomplish this, using vestibular and…

Cats possess a vomeronasal organ, also called the Jacobson's organ, a paired chemosensory structure in the roof of the mouth specialized for detecting pheromones and other chemical signals. This overv…

The flehmen response is a distinctive open-mouthed, lip-curled grimace cats make to draw scent molecules into the vomeronasal organ. This overview surveys the behavior and its function, in which a cat…

When exposed to catnip or silver vine, cats characteristically rub their faces and bodies against the material and roll in it. This overview surveys the function of this rubbing and rolling, which res…

Cats can move their external ears with remarkable freedom thanks to a large number of muscles controlling each pinna. This overview surveys the ear musculature that lets cats rotate, tilt, and swivel…

Research into why cats find silver vine and catnip rewarding has pointed to the involvement of the body's opioid system. This overview surveys evidence that the rubbing and rolling response engages en…

Night vision depends not only on rods but on a dedicated downstream circuit that carries their signals into the rest of the retina. This survey reviews the rod bipolar to AII amacrine cell pathway, a…

Cats are crepuscular hunters whose retinas are heavily biased toward rod photoreceptors, the cells that mediate vision in dim light. Comparative anatomy suggests the feline retina carries roughly twen…