🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Driscoll and colleagues sampled mitochondrial DNA from nearly 1,000 wildcats and domestic cats across Europe, Asia and Africa to resolve where the house cat came from. The analysis showed all domestic…

Carlos A. Driscoll, Marilyn Menotti-Raymond, Alfred L. Roca, et al. · Science · 2007

This study sequenced ancient DNA from cat remains spanning roughly ten thousand years across Europe, the Near East, and Africa to trace how cats spread alongside humans. The authors identified two maj…

Claudio Ottoni, Eva-Maria Geigl, Thierry Grange, et al. · Nature Ecology & Evolution · 2017

Lipinski and colleagues used a panel of genetic markers to characterize the population structure of cat breeds and worldwide random-bred cats. They found that most modern cat breeds are relatively rec…

Monika J. Lipinski, Lutz Froenicke, Kathryn C. Baysac, et al. · Genomics · 2008

This landmark study investigated why cats rub and roll on silver vine and catnip, and uncovered a surprising functional benefit beyond apparent pleasure. The researchers identified nepetalactol as a p…

Reiko Uenoyama, Tamako Miyazaki, Jane L. Hurst, Robert J. Beynon, et al. · Science Advances · 2021

McComb and colleagues identified a special soliciting purr that cats use to extract food and care from their owners. Comparing purrs recorded when cats sought food with ordinary contentment purrs, the…

Karen McComb, Anna M. Taylor, Christian Wilson, Benjamin D. Charlton · Current Biology · 2009

This widely cited quantitative synthesis estimated that free-ranging domestic cats in the contiguous United States kill billions of birds and tens of billions of mammals annually, with unowned cats re…

Scott Loss, Tom Will, Peter Marra · Nature Communications · 2013

Loss, Will and Marra produced a landmark quantitative estimate of how many wild animals free-ranging cats kill in the United States. Synthesizing data from predation studies through a systematic revie…

Scott R. Loss, Tom Will, Peter P. Marra · Nature Communications · 2013

Ottoni and colleagues sequenced mitochondrial DNA from more than 200 ancient cats spanning 9,000 years, from Mesolithic Europe through Viking-age ports to Egyptian mummies. They identified two major d…

Claudio Ottoni, Wim Van Neer, Bea De Cupere, et al. · Nature Ecology & Evolution · 2017

Prugh and colleagues synthesized global evidence that the worldwide decline of apex predators has triggered widespread increases in mid-sized carnivores, with far-reaching ecological and economic cons…

Prugh, L.R., Stoner, C.J., Epps, C.W., Bean, W.T. et al. · BioScience · 2009

Humphrey and colleagues experimentally tested the popular belief that slow blinking is a friendly signal in cats. In one experiment, owners either slow-blinked at their cat or maintained a neutral fac…

Tasmin Humphrey, Leanne Proops, Jemma Forman, Rebecca Spooner, Karen McComb · Scientific Reports · 2020

Two experiments tested whether the narrowed-eye, slow-blink expression functions as friendly signalling between cats and people. When owners slow-blinked at their cats, the cats were more likely to sl…

Tasmin Humphrey, Karen McComb, Leanne Proops and colleagues · Scientific Reports · 2020

Owners often report that a hungry cat's purr is peculiarly hard to ignore, and this study found why. Acoustic analysis revealed that some purrs contain an embedded high-frequency, cry-like component i…

Karen McComb, Anna Taylor, Christian Wilson, Benjamin Charlton · Current Biology · 2009

Tan, Stellato and Niel reviewed the evidence on letting cats roam freely outdoors, weighing welfare risks and benefits against effects on wildlife and people. They synthesized literature showing that…

Sophie M. L. Tan, Anastasia C. Stellato, Lee Niel · Animals · 2020

This study established a quantitative baseline for cheetah reproductive physiology by electroejaculating wild-caught males and comparing their semen to that of domestic cats. The cheetahs produced eja…

Wildt DE, Bush M, Howard JG, O'Brien SJ, Meltzer D, van Dyk A, Ebedes H, Brand DJ · Biology of Reproduction · 1983

Miklosi and colleagues compared how cats and dogs use and respond to human visual communicative signals, particularly pointing gestures indicating hidden food. Both species could follow human pointing…

Adam Miklosi, Peter Pongracz, Gabriella Lakatos, Jozsef Topal, Vilmos Csanyi · Journal of Comparative Psychology · 2005

Saito and Shinozuka used a habituation-dishabituation design to ask whether cats distinguish their owner's voice from strangers' voices. Cats heard recordings of three strangers calling the cat's name…

Atsuko Saito, Kazutaka Shinozuka · Animal Cognition · 2013

Researchers tracked litters of kittens to examine how the timing of weaning relates to changes in play. As mothers reduced nursing, kittens increased object-directed and predatory play while social pl…

Paul Martin, Patrick Bateson · Animal Behaviour · 1985

To test the common claim that cats are aloof, researchers offered both shelter and pet cats a choice among four stimulus categories: social interaction with a human, food, toy, and scent. After a depr…

Kristyn Vitale Shreve, Lindsay Mehrkam, Monique Udell · Behavioural Processes · 2017

This widely cited study tested why pupil shape varies so systematically across animals, finding a strong link between vertical-slit pupils and a terrestrial, ambush-predator lifestyle, exemplified by…

Martin S. Banks, William W. Sprague, Jurgen Schmoll, Jared A. Q. Parnell, Gordon D. Love · Science Advances · 2015