🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Cats rely heavily on smell and on the vomeronasal system for detecting pheromones in social and reproductive communication, including the flehmen response. This overview surveys the genetics of feline…

Because cats rely heavily on smell for hunting, social communication and exploring their world, scent-based enrichment is a natural fit for felid welfare. This overview surveys studies adding novel od…

The feline response to silver vine begins when olfactory sensory neurons detect nepetalactol and related iridoids. This overview surveys how the cat's sense of smell registers these compounds and init…

This overview examines the diet and activity of the oncilla, drawn from limited field and scat studies. The species is a hunter of small vertebrates, including small rodents, birds, and reptiles, with…

The oncilla, also called the tigrina or little spotted cat, is a small spotted felid distributed in a fragmented fashion from Central America through the Andes and into Brazil and beyond. This overvie…

Hybridization between the southern oncilla and Geoffroys cat, documented through genetic studies, is a notable feature of the oncilla evolutionary history, and this overview reviews it. In contact zon…

In parts of its range the oncilla occupies high-elevation habitats, including montane cloud forest and paramo-like grasslands, and this overview reviews this aspect of its ecology. Records from the An…

An overview of how the prey a cat takes changes as it grows, learns to hunt and gains the size and strength to subdue larger prey. Young felids first depend on prey provided by their mother, then prac…

Adult cheetah sprinting is well characterised, but how do cubs develop the coordination, muscle architecture, and skeletal proportions required for high-speed pursuit? This overview gathers what is kn…

The quality and developmental competence of eggs decline with maternal age, contributing to reduced fertility in older female cats. This overview surveys research on how aging affects felid oocytes, i…

Although less commonly trained than dogs, cats learn readily through operant conditioning, and this overview surveys research and applied work on training them. It covers the use of positive reinforce…

Potent opioids, including butorphanol and ultra-potent agents in some protocols, are incorporated into big-cat anesthesia to enhance analgesia and immobilization, often combined with dissociatives and…

An overview of how energetic costs and benefits shape the prey sizes big cats prefer to hunt. Optimal foraging predicts that predators target prey large enough to yield a high energy return per kill y…

The chemicals and protocols used to protect sperm during freezing strongly determine how many survive thawing with intact function. This overview surveys research aimed at optimizing cryoprotectants a…

Oral vaccination, delivered through baits, has been used to immunize wildlife reservoirs against rabies and is considered for other diseases, with indirect benefits for exposed felids. This overview s…

The Panthera lineage contains the roaring cats and their relatives and represents the earliest branch of the modern felid radiation. This overview surveys genetic and fossil evidence for an Asian orig…

Osteoarthritis is far more common in cats than once recognized, with radiographic studies showing degenerative joint changes in a large majority of older cats, yet the disease is frequently underdiagn…

Within the vestibular system, the otolith organs, the utricle and saccule, sense linear acceleration and the pull of gravity, complementing the rotation-sensing semicircular canals. This overview surv…

While genetic rescue can revive inbred populations, mixing divergent populations carries a theoretical risk of outbreeding depression, where hybrids are less fit due to disrupted local adaptation or g…

Many captive female cheetahs experience extended periods without ovarian cyclicity, a major obstacle to sustaining captive populations. This overview surveys research characterizing ovarian inactivity…

Stimulating the ovaries with exogenous gonadotropins to produce multiple follicles is a key step in collecting eggs or preparing females for insemination in cats. This overview surveys ovarian stimula…

Grafting felid ovarian tissue into immunodeficient host animals is an experimental method for maturing follicles and recovering oocytes from banked or rescued tissue. This overview surveys research on…

Overall dynamic body acceleration, or ODBA, sums the dynamic component of acceleration across three axes to provide a low-cost proxy for an animal's rate of energy use. This overview explains the rati…

Many captive cats, notably cheetahs and clouded leopards, undergo prolonged periods of ovarian inactivity in which they neither cycle nor ovulate, undermining breeding programs. This overview examines…

Synchronizing ovulation with the delivery of semen is essential for successful artificial insemination, since eggs and sperm must meet within a narrow window. This overview surveys methods for timing…

Reducing cat predation depends on owner willingness to change behaviour, so social research has examined how owners view their cats' hunting and proposed interventions. This overview surveys studies o…

A growing line of research examines how owners' own personality traits relate to their cats' behaviour, health and welfare, paralleling parenting-style research in humans. This overview surveys studie…

Oxytocin, a hormone involved in social bonding, has been studied in dogs during owner interaction, and researchers have asked whether cats show comparable hormonal responses. This overview surveys the…

Stereotypic pacing is the signature abnormal behaviour of captive carnivores, and a leading explanation links it to thwarted ranging and unfulfilled appetitive, pre-consummatory motivation, the search…

This overview surveys the abundant evidence of disease, injury, and skeletal abnormality preserved in Smilodon fatalis from Rancho La Brea. The asphalt deposits yield bones showing healed fractures, a…