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Kristyn Vitale, PhD, is a researcher and educator in animal behavior, animal welfare, and human-animal interaction. Her main area of work focuses on cat social cognition, cat behavior, and human-cat interaction.

Kristyn (Shreve) Vitale received her PhD in Animal Science from Oregon State University. As a member of the OSU Human-Animal Interaction Lab, she examined cat social cognition and the influence of kitten training and socialization classes on the human-cat bond.

Kristyn received a Master’s of Environmental Science from Miami University. Her Master’s thesis focused on the social behavior of free-roaming colony cats.

Kristyn also served as a Visiting Research Fellow at Kyoto University in Japan where she conducted cross-cultural research into the cat-human relationship and a Maddie’s Postdoctoral Scholar in which she examined the influence of socialization and foster programs on shelter cat stress and sociability.

Her research and expertise in cat behavior has been internationally featured in media outlets such as:

• Science

• The New York Times

• National Geographic 

• The Washington Post

• PBS

• Scientific American

• Time

• The Times of London

• W Radio Columbia

• Wall Street Journal

• Reader’s Digest

In 2014, Kristyn started maueyes as a resource on cat behavior, cat science, and cat training.  In 2019, she also created CatSci Podcast with fellow cat trainer Tori Peterson. Kristyn’s goal is to apply science to increase cat welfare and improve human-cat relationships. Learn more about Kristyn here.

Contact Kristyn for Media & Speaking Inquiries:

maueyes.catresearch [at] gmail.com

This material is based upon work supported by the the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under Grant No. (1314109-DGE). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.