🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Genetic research has divided the leopard cat into two species, the mainland leopard cat and the Sunda leopard cat of the islands of Southeast Asia, and this overview reviews the evidence and its conse…

Molecular phylogeography revealed that leopard cats on the Sunda islands of Southeast Asia diverge deeply from mainland leopard cats, leading to recognition of a separate species, the Sunda leopard ca…

Subspecies inflation, the naming of many weakly supported geographic forms, has long plagued large carnivore taxonomy and complicates conservation. This overview explains how cats accumulated dozens o…

This overview examines the timing of extinction among the great carnivores of Rancho La Brea, including the sabertooth Smilodon fatalis and the American lion, whose latest dated remains cluster near t…

The vertical tail-up posture is one of the most studied visual signals in domestic cats and is widely interpreted as a friendly intention signal that precedes approach, allorubbing, and amicable inter…

The raised, vertical tail is one of the clearest visual signals in cat social behaviour, and this overview surveys research establishing it as a friendly, affiliative display. It examines studies, inc…

Quantum efficiency describes the fraction of incoming photons that produce a useful visual signal, and the tapetum raises that fraction by recycling light. This overview surveys how the tapetum, toget…

The tapetum lucidum is a reflective layer behind the cat retina that bounces light back through the photoreceptors, giving the eye a second chance to capture each photon and producing the familiar glo…

The eerie eyeshine of cats comes from the tapetum lucidum, a reflective layer behind the retina, and this overview reviews how it boosts vision in dim light. By bouncing light that has passed through…

This overview examines the hypothesis that sabertooths killed primarily by directing a precise bite to the throat of immobilized prey. By driving the canines into the soft ventral neck, the cat could…

The South China tiger, historically regarded as the stem population from which other tigers radiated, is functionally extinct in the wild and survives only in captivity. This overview examines its tax…

Cats possess a third eyelid, the nictitating membrane, and this overview reviews its anatomy and function. This translucent fold sweeps across the eye from the inner corner, helping spread tears, clea…

This overview surveys how palaeontologists distinguish the three generally recognized species of the sabertooth genus Smilodon. The earliest and smallest, Smilodon gracilis, appears in the early Pleis…

Few felid controversies are as prominent as how many subspecies of tiger exist. This overview lays out the competing positions: a conservative two-subspecies scheme (mainland and Sunda) advanced on co…

This overview reviews what is known about when and why Smilodon disappeared, with the best-dated records clustering near the end of the Pleistocene around the time of widespread megafaunal extinction…

This overview reviews evidence on when and why the cave lion disappeared, with the latest well-dated records indicating survival into the terminal Pleistocene before extinction roughly fourteen thousa…

This overview surveys the two recognized species of the American cheetah-like cat, Miracinonyx trumani and Miracinonyx inexpectatus. Miracinonyx trumani is the more derived, strongly cursorial form, w…

Modern classifications divide living cats into two subfamilies: Pantherinae (the roaring and big cats plus clouded leopards) and Felinae (most small and medium cats). This overview explains how that s…

Modern lion taxonomy recognizes two subspecies divided by a north-south axis rather than the old African-Asian split. This overview explains the arrangement: Panthera leo leo covers North, West, and C…

Before legal antiviral products existed, owners desperate to save cats with FIP obtained unregulated GS-441524 through informal networks and online communities, often coordinating dosing with sympathe…

Despite being a large cat, the cheetah cannot roar and instead produces a distinctive repertoire including bird-like chirps, stutter-bark calls, churrs, and purring. This overview surveys descriptions…

Among terrestrial mammals, cats have one of the highest upper hearing limits, extending well into the ultrasonic range. This overview surveys audiogram data placing the feline ceiling far above the ro…

Few wild populations have been studied as continuously as the lions of the Serengeti, where decades of records on known individuals have transformed understanding of the species. This overview synthes…

Balance and spatial orientation in cats depend on the vestibular system of the inner ear, including the semicircular canals that sense rotation. This overview surveys the structure and function of the…

To keep vision stable as the head moves, the vestibulo-ocular reflex rotates the eyes opposite to head motion, and this reflex has been studied extensively in cats. This overview surveys the feline ve…

This overview surveys how the presence and behaviour of visitors specifically affect captive cats, a group that frequently responds to crowds with vigilance, hiding or altered activity. It examines st…

Alongside the area centralis, the cat retina has a horizontally elongated band of higher ganglion cell density known as the visual streak. This overview surveys the role of the visual streak, which pr…

Domestic cats produce a diverse set of vocalisations that researchers have grouped into categories such as murmurs made with a closed mouth, including purrs and trills, vowel-pattern calls such as the…

Each feline whisker sits in a follicle-sinus complex, a specialized structure packed with mechanoreceptors and blood-filled sinuses that transduce whisker movement into nerve signals. This overview su…

White tigers are not a separate subspecies but tigers carrying a recessive pigment variant, and nearly all captive white tigers descend from a small number of related founders, so producing them relie…