🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Sabertoothed cats are thought to have killed very differently from living felids, and this overview reviews the leading canine-shear hypothesis in that comparative light. Where modern big cats use a p…

The caracal lineage groups three African cats: the caracal, the serval, and the African golden cat. This overview surveys the molecular evidence uniting these morphologically diverse species into a si…

Cats develop many spontaneous diseases analogous to human conditions, and this overview surveys their value as natural genetic models. It examines feline counterparts of human disorders including poly…

This overview examines the cat gap, a roughly seven-million-year interval in the Oligocene and early Miocene during which true cats are essentially absent from the North American fossil record, even t…

A falling cat can turn to land feet-down without any external push, a feat that puzzled physicists for over a century. This overview explains the modern understanding: the cat rotates its front and ba…

Cats have an exceptionally strict requirement for dietary arginine because their continuous high rate of protein metabolism generates ammonia that must be detoxified through the urea cycle, for which…

Unlike many mammals that can convert plant-derived beta-carotene into vitamin A, cats lack sufficient enzymatic capacity for this conversion and therefore require preformed vitamin A from animal sourc…

Roughly two-thirds of domestic cats display a stereotyped response to catnip, sniffing, licking, rolling, and rubbing, triggered by the compound nepetalactone acting through the olfactory and vomerona…

This overview examines the vast geographic range of the cave lion, which spread across northern Eurasia and into Beringia and parts of northwestern North America during the Pleistocene. This enormous…

The Pleistocene cave lion was a widespread Eurasian and Beringian predator, and ancient DNA has clarified how it relates to living lions. This overview summarizes genetic evidence that the cave lion,…

Cats possess a tapetum cellulosum, a type of reflective layer built from regular arrays of crystal-containing cells rather than the fibrous form seen in some other animals. This survey reviews studies…

The cheetah is famous for sounding unlike other big cats, and this overview reviews its distinctive vocalisations. Rather than roaring, cheetahs produce bird-like chirps, churrs, and a range of high-p…

A devastating outbreak of feline infectious peritonitis in a captive cheetah facility, with mortality far exceeding that seen in domestic cats, became a landmark case linking genetic uniformity to dis…

Cheetahs are famous for their exceptionally low genetic diversity, the legacy of one or more ancient population bottlenecks. This overview synthesizes research documenting the species' remarkable gene…

Urine spraying is a primary scent-marking behavior in cats, depositing a chemically rich signal on vertical surfaces. This overview surveys the composition of sprayed urine, which contains compounds s…

Animal domestication is often described as following three routes: a commensal pathway, a prey pathway and a directed pathway. This overview focuses on the commensal model as applied to cats, in which…

This overview reviews frameworks that array human-carnivore relationships along a continuum from acute conflict through coexistence to active stewardship, and that match interventions to a situation's…

This overview examines the long-running debate over what the American lion, Panthera atrox, actually was. Since its description from Pleistocene North America, researchers have variously regarded it a…

Findings that Toxoplasma alters rodent behavior have fueled extensive, contested research into possible effects on humans, from subtle personality differences to associations with psychiatric conditio…

The Asiatic cheetah survives only in Iran, reduced to a few dozen individuals, the last remnant of a subspecies that once ranged across southwest Asia and India. This overview surveys genetic studies…

Claw deployment is powered by the deep digital flexor muscle, whose tendons run down each toe to the claw-bearing bone. This overview reviews the tendon-and-pulley arrangement that protracts the claws…

A consistent finding across lion genetics is a deep division between northern and southern populations that crosses the Sahara and reaches into Asia. This overview explains the evidence for this split…

The kitten visual system became a foundational model in neuroscience, and this overview reviews what studies of feline visual development revealed. Classic experiments on visual deprivation in kittens…

The lion's mane is a sexually selected ornament whose size and color vary with age, testosterone, climate, and individual condition. This overview surveys what is known about the developmental and hor…

Kittens purr from very early life, and this overview surveys the developmental emergence and early functions of purring. It examines reports that kittens purr while nursing, possibly communicating wit…

The tabby patterns of cats, mackerel stripes versus blotched swirls, arise from the interaction of genes that establish a prepattern in the developing skin and then translate it into dark and light ha…

The cat first digit, carried high on the inner foreleg as the dewclaw, does not touch the ground in walking but plays a role in grasping. This overview reviews its anatomy and function: a mobile, claw…

FIP has long been notoriously difficult to diagnose definitively before death because no single non-invasive test is both highly sensitive and specific, and because antibody to feline coronavirus is c…

Snow leopards are among the hardest big cats to count, and their global population remains poorly known. This overview synthesizes the methodological challenges of surveying a cryptic, low-density cat…

Most cats share a conserved chromosome number, but the ocelot lineage is distinguished by a reduced karyotype resulting from a chromosomal fusion. This overview explains how Leopardus species carry 36…