🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

An overview of the substantial toll free-ranging domestic cats take on wild birds, small mammals, reptiles and amphibians in urban, suburban and rural landscapes. Both owned outdoor cats and unowned f…

Free-roaming and feral domestic cats, vastly more numerous than their wild relatives, act as a reservoir for pathogens that can spill into endangered felids. This overview surveys the suite of disease…

Using domestic cats to gestate embryos of related wild species offers a practical surrogate system for conservation reproductive technology. This overview surveys the use of domestic cat recipients to…

Where domestic cats overlap with wild felids, interbreeding can erode the genetic distinctiveness of wild species, a documented threat to European wildcats and a concern for other small cats near sett…

Domestic cats occupy the urban carnivore community alongside native mesopredators and larger carnivores, and their abundance is shaped by interactions with these species. This overview synthesises res…

Collecting semen from nondomestic cats usually requires electroejaculation under anesthesia, a standardized technique that allows evaluation and banking of sperm. This overview surveys how electroejac…

The African wildcat, closely related to the domestic cat, has been a key species for demonstrating embryo transfer and related technologies in a wild felid. This overview surveys work in which African…

Embryo transfer, in which embryos are moved to a recipient female to establish pregnancy, was developed in the domestic cat as a foundation for felid conservation applications. This overview surveys h…

The domestic cat genome carries endogenous retroviral sequences related to FeLV, remnants of ancient germline infections that are inherited rather than transmitted. These endogenous elements can recom…

The interval between successive estrous periods varies considerably among cat species and depends on whether ovulation has occurred. This overview surveys data on follicular phase duration, interestro…

Female cats in estrus display a recognizable suite of behaviors, including increased vocalization, rolling, treading, lordosis posture, and heightened receptivity to males. This overview describes the…

Feline herpesvirus and calicivirus, the main agents of cat respiratory disease, circulate in domestic cats and can spill into wild felids, causing upper respiratory and oral disease. This overview sur…

Beyond 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…

The 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:…

Feline 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…

Obesity has become one of the most common nutritional disorders in domestic cats, driven by overfeeding, calorie-dense diets, indoor sedentary lifestyles, and neutering, and it substantially increases…

Feline 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…

A survey of the documented and ongoing impacts of feral domestic cats on island vertebrates, among the most damaging examples of introduced-predator effects. Feral cats have contributed to dozens of b…

Fleas 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…

Free-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…

Free-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…

The 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…

Despite descending from wildcats only thousands of years ago, domestic cats differ subtly in genetics and behavior, and characterizing this divergence illuminates the domestication process. This overv…

The European wildcat, Felis silvestris, persists in fragmented populations from Iberia and Scotland through central and eastern Europe to the Caucasus. This overview surveys studies of its genetic str…

Several popular domestic cat breeds were created by crossing house cats with wild felid species, including the Bengal from the Asian leopard cat, the Savannah from the serval, and the Chausie from the…

Several striking morphological variants in domestic cats have known genetic bases, including the taillessness of the Manx cat and extra toes in polydactyl cats. This overview surveys the discovery tha…

The Chinese mountain cat, a poorly known felid endemic to the Tibetan Plateau region, has been the subject of debate over whether it is a distinct species, a wildcat subspecies, and whether it contrib…

Gestation in felids scales broadly with body size, ranging from roughly two months in small cats to around three and a half months in the largest species. This overview compiles comparative data on pr…

The 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…

Free-ranging domestic cats maintain home ranges whose size and overlap depend on sex, reproductive status, food distribution, and population density. This overview surveys tracking studies showing tha…