🧬 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…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

Alongside the area centralis, the cat retina has a horizontally elongated band of higher ganglion cell density known as the visual streak. This overview surveys the role of the visual streak, which pr…

Although domestic cats have vertical-slit pupils, large felids such as lions and tigers have round pupils, a contrast that has attracted scientific attention. This overview surveys the explanation tie…