Research library
🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries
AI-curated summaries for the pride’s library — verify citations independently before citing.
64 summaries matching “domestic cat” on domestic-cat
Research overview: feline leprosy and atypical mycobacteria in wild cats
OverviewBeyond bovine tuberculosis, felids can be affected by other mycobacteria, including the agents of feline leprosy that cause nodular skin disease. This overview surveys what is known about these atypic…
Research overview: feline leukemia virus outbreak response and vaccination in the Florida panther
OverviewThe detection of feline leukemia virus in the endangered Florida panther triggered one of the few field campaigns to vaccinate free-ranging wild cats. This overview synthesizes the outbreak response:…
Research overview: feline leukemia virus spillover from domestic cats to wild felids
OverviewFeline leukemia virus is fundamentally a domestic-cat pathogen, yet it has crossed into endangered wild felids with lethal consequences. This overview surveys documented and suspected spillover events…
Research overview: feline panleukopenia (parvovirus) spillover to wild felids
OverviewFeline panleukopenia virus, a parvovirus closely related to canine parvovirus, causes severe, often fatal disease and circulates readily among domestic cats, posing a spillover risk to wild felids. Th…
Research overview: flea-borne pathogens of wild felids
OverviewFleas transmit a range of pathogens to felids, including Bartonella species responsible for cat-scratch disease, hemotropic mycoplasmas that cause anemia, and the plague bacterium. This overview surve…
Research overview: free-ranging cat density across the urban gradient
OverviewFree-ranging domestic cat density often peaks in human-dominated areas where supplemental feeding and shelter abound, declining toward wildland where native predators and scarcer food limit them. This…
Research overview: free-ranging cats, disease and wildlife-human health links
OverviewFree-ranging domestic cats are reservoirs and vectors for pathogens affecting wildlife, other cats and humans, including the protozoan that causes toxoplasmosis and various feline viruses. This overvi…
Research overview: free-roaming cat density and disease spillover risk to wildlife
OverviewThe risk that domestic-cat pathogens reach wild felids and other wildlife scales with the density and distribution of free-roaming cats, especially near protected areas. This overview surveys research…
Research overview: hiding places, refuges and visual barriers as felid welfare requirements
OverviewThe ability to hide and break line of sight is a core feline coping mechanism, and a recurring finding across both small wild cats and domestic cats is that providing refuges reduces stress hormones a…
Research overview: hybridization and pathogen exchange between domestic cats and European wildcats
OverviewThe European wildcat faces a dual threat from domestic cats: genetic swamping through hybridization and the exchange of pathogens that accompanies close contact. This overview surveys how interbreedin…
Research overview: hybridization as the central wildcat conservation threat
OverviewFor several wildcat populations, the greatest threat is not habitat loss or persecution but genetic assimilation through hybridization with domestic cats. This overview examines how introgression enda…
Research overview: hybridization between wild and domestic cats near settlements
OverviewWhere small wild felids overlap with free-ranging domestic cats around settlements, hybridisation and disease transmission can threaten the genetic integrity and health of wild populations. This overv…
Research overview: introgression between the Chinese mountain cat and domestic cats
OverviewGenomic work on the Chinese mountain cat addressed whether it contributed to East Asian domestic cats and revealed instead a one-directional pattern. This overview explains that domestic cats in China…
Research overview: introgression between wildcats and domestic cats
OverviewBecause domestic cats descend from wildcats and remain interfertile with them, introgression is a pervasive problem in wildcat taxonomy and conservation. This overview explains how gene flow from fera…
Research overview: lungworms of wild and domestic felids
OverviewLungworms such as Aelurostrongylus abstrusus and Troglostrongylus species infect the respiratory tracts of felids, causing coughing, respiratory distress and sometimes serious disease, particularly in…
Research overview: managing feline leukemia virus risk across Iberian lynx populations
OverviewAfter a virulent feline leukemia virus outbreak struck Donana Iberian lynx, disease management became central to recovery of the species. This overview synthesizes the response and ongoing strategy: r…
Research overview: pathogen pollution and the introduction of disease to wild felids
OverviewThe concept of pathogen pollution describes the human-mediated introduction of pathogens into new host populations, a recurring driver of disease in wild felids. This overview surveys how activities s…
Research overview: pelage and morphology for wildcat identification
OverviewDistinguishing a true wildcat from a tabby domestic cat or hybrid is a practical taxonomic challenge with conservation stakes. This overview describes the morphological characters used, including a bu…
Research overview: questions around feline immunodeficiency virus vaccination and wild cats
OverviewVaccines against feline immunodeficiency virus exist for domestic cats but raise complex questions when considered for wild felids harboring their own endemic lentiviruses. This overview surveys the i…
Research overview: scent marking and the expression of territorial behaviour in captive cats
OverviewCats communicate and organise their world through scent, marking with urine spray, facial rubbing, scratching and other signals, and the ability to perform and perceive these behaviours matters for we…
Research overview: social stress and resource competition in multi-cat households
OverviewDomestic cats are facultatively social and did not evolve to share territory with unrelated individuals, so multi-cat households can generate chronic social stress that manifests as behaviour and heal…
Research overview: species versus subspecies in the wildcat complex
OverviewHow many species the wildcat complex contains has shifted with new evidence and species concepts. This overview traces the debate from treating all wildcats as one species, Felis silvestris, with many…
Research overview: the African wildcat as ancestor of the domestic cat
OverviewGenetic and archaeological evidence converge on the African or Near Eastern wildcat, Felis lybica, as the sole wild ancestor of all domestic cats. This overview explains how the foundational phylogeog…
Research overview: the Felis silvestris wildcat species complex
OverviewThe wildcat complex is among the most taxonomically debated felid groups because of its broad range, clinal variation, and entanglement with the domestic cat. This overview surveys the complex's struc…
Research overview: the feral origin of island wildcat populations
OverviewWildcats on some Mediterranean islands, such as Sardinia, Corsica, and Crete, were long treated as native subspecies, but genetic studies suggest they descend from cats introduced by humans. This over…
Research overview: trophic consequences of subsidised urban predators
OverviewWhen anthropogenic food subsidises predators, the effects ripple through food webs, altering predation pressure on native prey and interactions among carnivores. This overview synthesises research on…
Research overview: why felids are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2: ACE2 receptor biology
OverviewCats are notably permissive to SARS-CoV-2, a susceptibility rooted in the structure of their ACE2 receptor, which the viral spike protein binds efficiently. This overview surveys comparative studies o…
SNP-based methods reveal the extent of wildcat-domestic cat hybridization in Scotland
PaperThis study applied genome-wide SNP markers to quantify how thoroughly Scottish wildcats have hybridized with domestic cats, a central question for the survival of the population. The authors developed…
Senn HV, Ghazali M, Kaden J, et al. · Evolutionary Applications · 2019
Stress and adaptation of cats housed singly, in pairs and in groups in boarding catteries
PaperKessler and Turner used the Cat-Stress-Score, a validated behavioural scale they helped popularise, to assess domestic cats in boarding catteries kept alone, in pairs or in groups. Most cats showed el…
Kessler MR, Turner DC · Animal Welfare · 1997
The 'Feline Five': an exploration of personality in pet cats
PaperLitchfield and colleagues surveyed owners of many pet cats to characterise feline personality, identifying five broad factors they termed the 'Feline Five': neuroticism, extraversion, dominance, impul…
Litchfield CA, Quinton G, Tindle H, Chiera B, Kikillus KH, Roetman P · PLoS ONE · 2017