🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Cats, both domestic and wild, are the only definitive hosts in which Toxoplasma gondii completes sexual reproduction and sheds environmentally resistant oocysts. This overview surveys the ecology of t…

Tea, coffee and rubber plantations across South and Southeast Asia form extensive human-modified habitats used by leopards, leopard cats, jungle cats and fishing cats with varying tolerance. This over…

Cats have a blood group system with important clinical consequences, and this overview surveys feline blood types and their genetic and practical dimensions. It covers the main AB system types A, B an…

Feline chronic gingivostomatitis is a severe, painful inflammatory disease of the mouth characterized by widespread inflammation of the gums and oral mucosa, often causing difficulty eating, drooling,…

The cochlea is the inner-ear structure that converts sound into neural signals, and its mechanics set the frequency range an animal can hear. This overview surveys what is known about the feline cochl…

Aging cats can develop cognitive dysfunction syndrome, a decline in cognitive function analogous to dementia, manifesting as disorientation, altered social interactions, changes in sleep-wake cycles,…

Cats are not colour-blind, but they see colour differently from humans, and this overview reviews the evidence for feline dichromacy. With two main cone types, cats are thought to perceive a more limi…

Feline coronavirus circulates widely and usually harmlessly, but can mutate within a host into the lethal feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) virus, a particular danger in crowded captive felid collec…

Feline coronavirus circulates widely as a generally mild enteric virus (FECV), but in a minority of infected cats it mutates within the host into a virulent biotype (FIPV) capable of replicating in ma…

Feline coronavirus spreads efficiently by the fecal-oral route, and in multi-cat households, catteries, and shelters most cats become infected and shed virus, with some becoming persistent shedders th…

Cats are generally understood to be dichromats, possessing two functional cone types rather than the three that give humans full color vision. This overview surveys behavioral and physiological eviden…

Cats deposit secretions from facial glands when rubbing objects, and these are thought to contain pheromone fractions associated with familiarity and reduced anxiety. This overview surveys the science…

Beyond the pathogenic FIV and FeLV, felids carry feline foamy virus, a generally apathogenic retrovirus that nonetheless offers a useful marker of contact and transmission. This overview surveys felin…

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…

Hospice and palliative care for cats with terminal or advanced chronic disease focuses on maintaining comfort, managing pain and symptoms, and supporting quality of life when cure is not possible, an…

Feline idiopathic cystitis, a common cause of lower urinary tract signs in cats, is increasingly understood as a stress-related condition with systemic dimensions, sometimes termed Pandora syndrome. T…

Because feline immunodeficiency virus evolves rapidly and is transmitted through fighting, its genetic signal can reveal how pumas move across fragmented landscapes. This overview surveys studies that…

African lions carry their own feline immunodeficiency virus, FIV-Ple, which exists as several deeply divergent lineages that often co-circulate within and among populations. This overview synthesizes…

In the early 1990s, clinicians and pathologists recognized an association between vaccination, particularly certain adjuvanted vaccines, and the development of aggressive soft-tissue sarcomas at injec…

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…

Feline parvovirus, the cause of panleukopenia, is a small, environmentally hardy DNA virus that targets rapidly dividing cells, producing the profound leukopenia, intestinal damage, and, in fetal or n…

Anecdotes describe cats approaching distressed owners, and researchers have begun testing whether cats respond differentially to human emotional signals such as crying. This overview surveys explorato…

Mice and other rodents produce vocalizations and movement sounds that extend into ultrasonic frequencies inaudible to humans, and cats are well equipped to hear them. This overview surveys how the cat…

Cats famously fail to respond to sweet tastes, and this trait is rooted in their genetics and diet. This overview surveys the phenomenon of feline sweet blindness, in which cats lack a functional swee…

Tooth resorption is one of the most common and painful dental diseases in cats, in which odontoclasts progressively destroy tooth structure, often beginning below the gumline and causing significant d…

Whiskers, or vibrissae, are specialized tactile hairs that give cats a high-resolution sense of touch crucial for navigation and hunting. This overview surveys the types and distribution of feline vib…