🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

This review synthesized progress in applying in vitro fertilization, embryo culture, embryo transfer, and cryopreservation to nondomestic cats, using the domestic cat as a research model. The author s…

Pope CE · Theriogenology · 2000

This study identified the molecular cause of the dominant white and white-spotting coat patterns in domestic cats, mapping both to the KIT gene that governs the migration of pigment-cell precursors du…

Victor A. David, Marilyn Menotti-Raymond, et al. · G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics · 2014

This study described a feline leukemia virus (FeLV) outbreak in the endangered Florida panther, a small, inbred puma population. Through surveillance testing, the authors detected progressive FeLV inf…

M. W. Cunningham, M. A. Brown, D. B. Shindle, et al. · Journal of Wildlife Diseases · 2008

This study documented a feline leukemia virus (FeLV) outbreak in the critically endangered Iberian lynx population of Donana, Spain. Through field surveillance, molecular diagnostics and pathology, th…

M. L. Meli, V. Cattori, F. Martínez, et al. · PLoS ONE · 2009

This genomic study examined the enigmatic Chinese mountain cat of the Tibetan Plateau and clarified its relationship to other wildcats and to domestic cats in China. Using genome-wide data, the author…

Yu H, Xing YT, Meng H, et al. · Science Advances · 2021

This influential study measured the audible frequency range of the domestic cat using behavioral methods, establishing that cats hear across an exceptionally broad span of frequencies. The work docume…

Rickye S. Heffner, Henry E. Heffner · Hearing Research · 1985

Cecchetti and colleagues tested practical, non-restrictive ways to cut the number of wild animals pet cats bring home. In a controlled trial, households trialled interventions including feeding a high…

Martina Cecchetti, Sarah L. Crowley, Cecily E. D. Goodwin, Robbie A. McDonald · Current Biology · 2021

This study used radio-telemetry to characterise the movements of owned and un-owned free-roaming domestic cats in an urbanising landscape, revealing that un-owned cats ranged over far larger areas tha…

Horn JA, Mateus-Pinilla N, Warner RE, Heske EJ · Journal of Wildlife Management · 2011

Sissom, Rice and Peters investigated the long-debated mechanism of purring by recording the sound and associated body vibrations in domestic cats. They documented that purring is produced continuously…

D. E. Frazer Sissom, D. A. Rice, G. Peters · Journal of Zoology · 1991

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 early genetic study examined the familiar but variable reaction of cats to catnip and proposed that responsiveness is an inherited trait. By observing the catnip response across cats and consider…

Neil B. Todd · Journal of Heredity · 1962

This paper reported the first draft genome of the domestic cat, sequenced at modest coverage from an Abyssinian cat named Cinnamon. Despite the light sequencing, the authors leveraged comparative mapp…

Joan U. Pontius, Stephen J. O'Brien, et al. · Genome Research · 2007

Doherty and colleagues assessed the contribution of invasive predators, prominently including feral cats, to global vertebrate extinctions and declines. Analyzing threatened and extinct species worldw…

Tim S. Doherty, Alistair S. Glen, Dale G. Nimmo, Euan G. Ritchie, Chris R. Dickman · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2016

This landmark study isolated a novel lentivirus from a California cattery where cats showed chronic, AIDS-like immunodeficiency with opportunistic infections and wasting. The team recovered a T-lympho…

Pedersen NC, Ho EW, Brown ML, Yamamoto JK · Science · 1987

In this widely cited study from San Diego habitat fragments, the authors showed that where bobcats and coyotes disappeared from small, isolated canyons, populations of smaller predators such as domest…

Crooks KR, Soule ME · Nature · 1999

This influential study identified the molecular basis of black coats across multiple cat species and showed that melanism evolved independently several times in the family. The authors found that mela…

Eduardo Eizirik, Stephen J. O'Brien, et al. · Current Biology · 2003

Pion, Kittleson, Rogers and Morris linked dilated cardiomyopathy in domestic cats to taurine deficiency and showed that supplementation could reverse the heart failure. The discovery confirmed taurine…

Pion PD, Kittleson MD, Rogers QR, Morris JG · Science · 1987

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

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

Gartner, Powell and Weiss applied systematic personality assessment to four felid species, having keepers rate individuals on behavioural traits and then analysing the underlying structure. They ident…

Gartner MC, Powell DM, Weiss A · Journal of Comparative Psychology · 2014

This study investigated feline coronavirus infection in cheetahs after a devastating outbreak of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) struck a captive cheetah facility with unusually high mortality. By…

J. L. Heeney, A. J. Evermann, A. J. McKeirnan, et al. · Journal of Virology · 1990

Nutter, Levine and Stoskopf studied the reproductive biology of free-roaming cats to inform population management, monitoring breeding females in feral colonies. They documented high reproductive outp…

Felicia B. Nutter, Jay F. Levine, Michael K. Stoskopf · Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association · 2004

Cytauxzoon felis is a tick-transmitted protozoan that causes a frequently fatal disease in domestic cats, with bobcats serving as the natural reservoir host. This overview synthesizes the parasite’s l…

The European wildcat occupies forest and agricultural mosaics across Europe, where proximity to settlements brings hybridisation with domestic cats, road mortality and habitat fragmentation. This over…

Lentiviruses related to domestic-cat FIV circulate widely in wild felid species including lions, pumas, leopards, and others, often at high seroprevalence yet apparently with limited disease in their…

The African or Near Eastern wildcat, Felis silvestris lybica, is the direct ancestor of all domestic cats. This overview surveys its ecology, distribution and behaviour, describing a solitary, territo…

A key outcome of recent wildcat taxonomy is the treatment of the European wildcat (Felis silvestris) and the African or Near Eastern wildcat (Felis lybica) as separate species rather than subspecies o…

This overview examines Proailurus, widely regarded as the earliest true cat, known principally from the late Oligocene and early Miocene of Europe, including the famous Quercy fissure fillings of Fran…

Toxocara cati and related ascarid roundworms are among the most common parasites of cats, with wild felids shedding eggs that contribute to environmental contamination and pose a zoonotic risk to peop…

Complementing maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA, Y-chromosome markers trace paternal lineages and reveal male-specific patterns of dispersal and mating in cats. This overview surveys how feline Y…