🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

This influential comparative study estimated bite forces across a broad range of living and extinct mammalian carnivores using dry-skull dissection methods and lever modelling, then scaled the results…

Wroe, S.; McHenry, C.; Thomason, J. · Proceedings of the Royal Society B · 2005

This study measured or estimated bite forces across many carnivoran species and related them to body size, skull shape, and feeding ecology, building predictive relationships between morphology and pe…

Christiansen, P.; Wroe, S. · Ecology · 2007

This landmark ethological treatise compiled decades of close observation into a comprehensive description of feline behaviour, with especially detailed analysis of the predatory sequence: the stalk, t…

Paul Leyhausen · 1979

The purr has a characteristic low fundamental frequency, and this overview reviews its acoustic structure and the claims made about specific frequencies. Measured purrs typically centre on low frequen…

When threatened, cats deploy a graded set of agonistic signals including growls, hisses, spits, and yowls, paired with visual displays such as piloerection, arched back, and ear and pupil changes. Thi…

Allonursing, the nursing of non-offspring, is best documented in lions but reported in other group-living or colonial felid contexts, including domestic cat colonies. This overview surveys research on…

Even as predators, cats must avoid being killed, and anti-predator behaviour shapes their activity and space use. This overview surveys research on vigilance, refuge use, and avoidance in domestic and…

Many cats climb readily, and some are highly arboreal. This overview surveys the biomechanics of climbing: the use of sharp recurved claws for grip, limb and joint mobility for negotiating branches, b…

Cats are exquisitely sensitive to a lack of dietary arginine, and this overview reviews why. Arginine is essential to the urea cycle that disposes of nitrogen waste from protein breakdown, and because…

Cats are renowned for poise on fences, branches, and ledges, and this overview reviews how they maintain dynamic balance on narrow or unstable substrates. The tail acts as a counterbalance and inertia…

How much energy a cat needs at rest and in daily life is fundamental to its biology, and this overview reviews feline basal metabolic rate and energy expenditure. Like other mammals, cat metabolic rat…

Much of feline temperature regulation is behavioural, and this overview reviews how posture and microhabitat choice keep cats comfortable. Cats curl up tightly to conserve heat and reduce exposed surf…

Behaviour is a frontline defence against water loss in the desert, and this overview reviews how desert cats use timing and shelter to stay hydrated. By being active in the cooler night and resting in…

Forward-facing eyes give cats substantial binocular overlap, and this overview reviews how this supports the depth perception needed to judge a leap or pounce. Overlapping fields allow stereopsis, in…

Mammals can generate heat without shivering, and this overview reviews the role of brown adipose tissue in feline heat production. Brown fat produces heat directly through specialised metabolism rathe…

Cat coats are often patterned for concealment, and this overview reviews the function and development of spots, stripes, and rosettes. Patterns such as the tiger stripes and leopard rosettes break up…

Felids kill primarily with their canine teeth, and this overview reviews how canine form and the killing bite are matched to prey. Many cats deliver a precise nape or throat bite, the slender, sharp c…

Cats possess sharp, blade-like carnassial teeth that shear flesh like scissors, and this overview surveys their structure and function. The carnassial pair, formed by an upper premolar and a lower mol…

Beyond the mechanics of the flehmen response, felids use vomeronasal sampling to extract social information from scent marks. This overview surveys research on how cats assess reproductive status, ind…

The degree of curvature in a claw correlates with how an animal uses it, and this overview reviews that relationship in cats. Strongly recurved claws favour gripping bark and branches and hooking into…

A claw is a keratin sheath grown over the terminal bone of the toe, and this overview surveys its structure, continuous growth, and the way cats shed worn outer layers. Scratching strips off the old h…

Scratching serves several functions at once, and this overview untangles them. Dragging the claws strips worn sheaths to maintain sharpness, stretches the limbs and back, and deposits both visual mark…

Beyond climbing, claws are weapons, and this overview surveys their use in seizing prey and in fights among cats. Extended claws anchor struggling prey while the bite is delivered, and raking strikes…

Coat colour can affect heat balance, and this overview reviews how dark and light fur interact with thermal load in cats. Darker coats absorb more solar radiation and may warm faster in sun, while lig…

A cat coat is layered for function, and this overview reviews its structure. Many cats have coarse outer guard hairs that shed water and resist wear over a softer, denser undercoat that traps air for…

Inside the cat cochlea, different frequencies stimulate different positions along the basilar membrane, and this overview reviews this tonotopic organisation and its high-frequency emphasis. The cochl…

Some cats endure cold climates, and this overview reviews how they tolerate low temperatures. Cold-climate cats rely on dense, insulating fur, including seasonal thickening, on conserving core heat th…

Cognition has been studied far less in cats than in primates, birds, or dogs, but a coherent picture is emerging across the felid family. This overview synthesises research on object permanence, spati…

Felid species differ in their vocal repertoires, and comparative bioacoustics has sought to map these differences onto phylogeny and ecology. This overview surveys work cataloguing call types across s…

Cats and dogs differ in how they handle water, and this overview reviews the comparison and its roots in feline biology. Cats, descended from desert-adapted ancestors, tend to have a lower thirst driv…