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Maine coon

origin: United States · 21 figures in the corpus · Q42659

Every figure below carries this breed's name or id in its source study -- grouped by what it measures, not ranked. A breed appearing under a study here does not mean every other breed was tested and came back negative; it means this is what has a named source so far. See each figure's own page for its caveats.

Longevity

9.71 years (life expectancy at age 0) verified

Maine Coon: years (life expectancy at age 0) (Teng KT, O'Neill DG, Brodbelt DC, Church DB, Pegram C)

  • Study sample n=69.
11.0 years (median age at death) verified

Maine Coon: years (median age at death) (O'Neill DG, Church DB, McGreevy PD, Thomson PC, Brodbelt DC)

  • Study sample n=14 (small sample; treat the estimate as imprecise).

Causes of death

525 deaths per 10,000 cat-years at risk (ASMR) verified

Maine Coon: age-standardized total mortality rate, Swedish insured cats (Egenvall 2009, Agria)

  • A rate, not a life expectancy -- higher ASMR means higher yearly death risk, not necessarily a shorter median lifespan.
1.4 percent stillborn verified

Maine Coon: stillbirth rate, UK pedigree litters (Sparkes et al. 2006)

  • Study sample n=27 litters.
8.4 percentage points dead between birth and 8 weeks verified

Maine Coon: birth-to-8-week kitten mortality, UK pedigree litters (Sparkes et al. 2006)

  • Study sample n=27 litters.

Breeding

5.17 mean kittens per litter verified

Maine Coon: mean litter size (Cerna et al. 2024)

  • Study sample n=95 litters.
10.5 percent of litters by caesarean section verified

Maine Coon: caesarean-section rate (Cerna et al. 2024)

  • Study sample n=95 litters.
13.0 percent cumulative kitten mortality to 12 weeks verified

Maine Coon: cumulative kitten mortality to 12 weeks, stillbirths included (Cerna et al. 2024)

  • Study sample n=95 litters.

Bodyweight

4.5 kg (adult bodyweight, Wikidata P2067) verified

Maine coon: adult bodyweight

  • Wikidata mass is sparse and its own sourcing varies by item; treat as indicative, not a veterinary measurement. See bodyweight-vetcompass-* figures for breeds with a clinical-cohort measurement instead.

Category (FIFe)

2 FIFe category (1-4, coat/morphology grouping) verified

Maine Coon (MCO): FIFe Category 2

  • Category is a coat/morphology grouping FIFe itself uses, not a ranking (1=lowest number, 4=highest, no ordinal meaning).

Temperament

0.51 narrow-sense heritability (h^2, 0-1) verified

Maine Coon: heritability of activity level

  • 95% HPD interval 0.37-0.67.
  • Estimated only for the three breeds with sufficient within-breed relatedness data (Ragdoll, Maine Coon, Turkish Van); not available for other breeds.
0.5 narrow-sense heritability (h^2, 0-1) verified

Maine Coon: heritability of contact to people

  • 95% HPD interval 0.35-0.65.
  • Estimated only for the three breeds with sufficient within-breed relatedness data (Ragdoll, Maine Coon, Turkish Van); not available for other breeds.
0.51 narrow-sense heritability (h^2, 0-1) verified

Maine Coon: heritability of aggression to strangers

  • 95% HPD interval 0.41-0.6.
  • Estimated only for the three breeds with sufficient within-breed relatedness data (Ragdoll, Maine Coon, Turkish Van); not available for other breeds.
0.48 narrow-sense heritability (h^2, 0-1) verified

Maine Coon: heritability of aggression to family members

  • 95% HPD interval 0.38-0.59.
  • Estimated only for the three breeds with sufficient within-breed relatedness data (Ragdoll, Maine Coon, Turkish Van); not available for other breeds.
0.46 narrow-sense heritability (h^2, 0-1) verified

Maine Coon: heritability of aggression to other cats

  • 95% HPD interval 0.33-0.59.
  • Estimated only for the three breeds with sufficient within-breed relatedness data (Ragdoll, Maine Coon, Turkish Van); not available for other breeds.
0.49 narrow-sense heritability (h^2, 0-1) verified

Maine Coon: heritability of shyness towards novel objects

  • 95% HPD interval 0.33-0.68.
  • Estimated only for the three breeds with sufficient within-breed relatedness data (Ragdoll, Maine Coon, Turkish Van); not available for other breeds.
0.47 narrow-sense heritability (h^2, 0-1) verified

Maine Coon: heritability of shyness towards strangers

  • 95% HPD interval 0.3-0.67.
  • Estimated only for the three breeds with sufficient within-breed relatedness data (Ragdoll, Maine Coon, Turkish Van); not available for other breeds.

HCM/PKD

16.33 percent (mutation-carrier prevalence, genotype) preliminary

Maine coon: MYBPC3-A31P carrier prevalence (Sukumolanan & Petchdee 2022)

  • Genotype (mutation-carrier) prevalence in a small screened cohort, not a phenotypic HCM diagnosis rate and not necessarily representative of the wider Maine Coon population.
24.45 percent (mutation-carrier prevalence, genotype) preliminary

Maine coon: MYBPC3-A74T carrier prevalence (Sukumolanan & Petchdee 2022)

  • Genotype (mutation-carrier) prevalence in a small screened cohort, not a phenotypic HCM diagnosis rate and not necessarily representative of the wider Maine Coon population.
42.0 percent (upper end of reported prevalence range, genotype, per a literature review) preliminary

Maine Coon: MYBPC3 A31P mutation prevalence range reported across prior studies (cited in Vet Sci 2025 review), range 22.0-42.0%

  • This project fetched a literature review, not the primary study the review cites for this figure -- see this data file's notes.
39.4 percent (mutation-carrier prevalence, genotype, per a literature review) preliminary

Maine Coon: MYBPC3 (any variant) gene-mutation carrier prevalence (cited in Vet Sci 2025 review)

  • This project fetched a literature review, not the primary study the review cites for this figure -- see this data file's notes.