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12h ago

Scientists Identify Fatty Acids That Give Cats a Stable Urine 'Calling Card'

Researchers say a kidney‑stored lipid system may let cats leave durable individual scent 'calling cards' that could inform veterinary care and conservation monitoring.

Ginger fluffy cat showing the flehmen response after picking up a curious scent.
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Animals often rely on scent marks to communicate identity across time, yet how chemically dynamic signals remain individually informative is unresolved; Ichizawa et al. show that domestic cats achieve durable chemical individuality through a reservoir-buffered system based on branched-chain fatty acid. Image credit: Ichizawa et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2026.07.045.

Overview

  • The study, published Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Current Biology, isolated 13 previously undocumented branched‑chain fatty acids (BFAs) that form individual‑specific profiles in domestic cat urine.
  • Behavioral tests guided by the flehmen response showed cats can tell urine from different individuals and that they respond to changes in donor BFA mixtures even when other urine lipids are controlled.
  • Chemical analyses found the BFAs are semi‑volatile, remained detectable in deposited samples for at least 24 hours at room temperature, and varied consistently within individuals over time.
  • The researchers detected BFA‑containing lipids almost exclusively in renal lipid droplets and propose those kidney droplets act as a reservoir that buffers urinary scent signatures, though the release mechanism is unresolved.
  • Similar compounds and kidney lipid droplets were found in several wild felids, suggesting evolutionary breadth, and the team says the finding could one day aid odor control, kidney‑health research, and noninvasive monitoring of rare cats pending field validation.