Cats have already got a mysterious popularity. They slip round corners, disappear at evening, and maintain their ideas near their furry chests. However, recent research revealed that cats are extra uncommon than we ever thought potential. From uncontrolled purring to cats that glow at nighttime, listed below are ten of probably the most weird feline discoveries.
Related: Top 10 Exotic Pets You Can Buy (But Probably Shouldn’t)
10 Cats Have Hundreds of Facial Expressions
For a very long time, it was believed that cats lacked any facial expressions past the fundamentals, akin to aggression, worry, or curiosity. But in 2022, a year-long research found that feline faces are exceptionally communicative. Cats have a minimum of 276 distinct expressions, a outstanding quantity when in comparison with people (44 expressions) and dogs (27 expressions).
Interestingly, each feline expression combines three or 4 of 26 distinctive facial actions to provide the specified look. These actions embody nostril licks, pupils that dilate or constrict, whisker position, parted lips, blinking, totally different ear positions, and curled mouth corners.
This number of “looks” disproves the widespread perception that cats are aloof. They present plenty of emotion. However, the researchers admit that it would take a while to decipher what all of the expressions are supposed to speak.[1]
9 Healthy Cats Act Sick
Just a few years in the past, Ohio State’s Veterinary Medical Center was home to 12 wholesome cats and 20 cats with interstitial cystitis (IC). This continual illness makes cats vomit and urinate extra incessantly than regular, usually outdoors of their litter field.
The cats had been a part of analysis tasks associated to understanding IC higher, however then the researchers observed one thing surprising. When the animals’ routines stayed constant and stress-free, the sick cats turned more healthy. When their routine was disrupted (like their regular caregiver went on trip), the wholesome cats displayed signs of IC, together with vomiting, refusing meals, and never utilizing their litter field.
This analysis means that when wholesome cats all of a sudden cough up hairballs or vomit, it’s not regular conduct as typical knowledge would possibly maintain. The animal could be harassed by adjustments in its surroundings. It additionally affords hope that cats with IC aren’t doomed to continual sickness as beforehand believed. A constant, stress-free routine can enhance their signs.[2]
8 Cats Prefer Carbs over Protein
Felines are feisty hunters. Many house owners have acquired “gifts” from their cats, together with lifeless mice, frogs, and birds. One could be forgiven for pondering that cats are bonkers for protein. However, one research revealed a shocking craving which may change how pet meals corporations strategy cat meals.
During the experiment, Oregan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine gave cats and dogs totally different meals selections. The meals had been ready to be tasty however with none distracting flavors or aromas, permitting the animals to freely select the meals that their our bodies needed.
The dogs made a beeline for meals with a excessive fats content material. The cats, surprisingly, most well-liked carbs, particularly the older animals. This dispels the widespread concept that felines solely need and want a protein-heavy food regimen.[3]
7 Cats Have a Dominant Paw
Thought solely people had been lefties or righties? Nope. According to a small research carried out in 2018, cats additionally want to make use of one paw over the opposite.
The group of collaborating felines had been allowed to remain at home with their house owners, who had been requested to look at their pets’ conduct in sure conditions. They needed to word whether or not a cat used their left or proper paw to step out of their litterbox, begin down a flight of stairs, and which paw they most well-liked to make use of first in different routine behaviors.
About 60 to 70% of the time, the cats confirmed a transparent choice for one paw. Curiously, feminine cats had been considerably extra right-paw-dominant, whereas males favored their left paws.[4]
6 Cats Have Primordial Pouches
When a cat turns six months old, they develop a mysterious function—the primordial pouch. It can simply be mistaken for a fats stomach, however this pouch has nothing to do with weight problems. In reality, all cats have one—male, feminine, skinny, and chubby.
The pouch runs all the size of a cat’s stomach and consists of fats, pores and skin, and fur. The function of the pouch is unknown, however its design suggests three prospects. Being so stretchy, it may provide a cat further flexibility and pace when wanted. The fats layer and unfastened pores and skin may defend the animals’s very important organs throughout a combat. The pouch would possibly even function a fats storage space that gives cats with sustenance throughout occasions of hardship.
Interestingly, primordial pouches are very pronounced in some cats and almost invisible in others. It’s not distinctive to accommodate cats, both. Big cats, like lions and tigers, even have them.[5]
5 The Mystery of Fetching Felines
When individuals play fetch with a pet, practically each case entails a canine. Canines like to run after frisbees, balls, and sticks. But cats? When they hear the phrase “fetch” and see a toy fly by way of the sky, isn’t the one response a baleful stare at their proprietor? Not all the time.
Cats would possibly by no means be taught to fetch on command, however some animals provoke fetching video games with people. Why they do it is a full thriller. To higher perceive the conduct, one research spoke with over 900 cat house owners, and curiously, the identical patterns emerged.
As with most issues that cats do, they name the pictures. They determined when the sport began, and none did so as a result of they had been educated to play fetch. The felines introduced an merchandise to their human just because they felt like a recreation. In reality, many house owners stated that the cats educated them to play fetch![6]
4 Cats Cannot Taste Sugar
Many feline house owners share ice cream or pudding with their “sweet-toothed” cat. But these animals usually are not after the sweetness—they’re seemingly drawn to the fats content material in such merchandise, one thing they will style very properly.
A person has about 9,000 style buds on their tongue. A cat’s style buds quantity a dismal 470. However, they may nonetheless style sure flavors higher than individuals as a consequence of an uncommon skill to make use of their superior sense of scent to boost style. But in relation to sugar, cats lose this spherical.
It all comes right down to genes. The receptor that detects sweetness depends on two genes, Tas1r2 and Tas1r3, to work collectively and produce proteins that enable the tongue to style sugar. In people, each genes are lively. But in cats, Tas1r2 is a pseudogene. The latter is a chunk of DNA that resembles a sure gene, nevertheless it can’t generate proteins. As a consequence, felines—even lions and tigers—don’t know what sugar tastes like. Bummer![7]
3 Purring Is Involuntary
Pet house owners already know that cats purr when they’re content material. But scientists needed to look below the hood and learn the way cats create their iconic throat rumble. For the longest time, they couldn’t determine it out.
In earlier research, squishy pads had been found in feline throats, however no person knew what to make of them. But in 2023, a research not solely discovered that these pads had been concerned in purring, however additionally they revealed an surprising twist. Cats won’t purr willfully.
Using deceased cats, scientists directed air by way of the pads, and (slightly freakishly) the lifeless animals purred. This confirmed that cats don’t want acutely aware muscle contractions to make the sound. After blowing that well-liked idea out of the water, the query stays. What’s occurring? The course of isn’t absolutely understood, nevertheless it’s believed that when a cat is completely happy, the mind triggers an aerodynamic response (purring) that continues on autopilot.[8]
2 Cats Glow below UV Light
Scientists have lengthy identified that some animals fluoresce below ultraviolet mild. This menagerie consists of bugs, fish, reptiles, and birds. But little was identified about how UV mild would possibly have an effect on mammals.
In 2023, a brand new research threw some mild on the topic. As it seems, mammals fluoresce like they’re being paid—together with the standard home cat. In reality, it was so widespread that each one 125 mammal species that had been UV-light examined glowed to numerous levels.
Mammals can fluoresce in yellow, pink, inexperienced, blue, and pink. Glowing compounds present up of their fur, pores and skin, claws, enamel, and even their bones. Animals that glow the brightest are inclined to have white or lighter-colored fur.
It’s unclear if fluorescence affords mammals any organic benefits or whether or not the sunshine present is a contented accident. All researchers perceive for sure is that the glow outcomes from floor chemistry. More exactly, compounds like proteins soak up mild earlier than emitting it again out into the world at a lower-energy wavelength.[9]
1 They Like Invisible Boxes Too
Cats can’t resist two issues—catnip and bins. The latter is an endearing trait. Many house owners have discovered their “missing” pet hiding in a cardboard container or watched their cat amuse themselves for hours inside a field. Building on this, researchers posed a weird query. Would a cat hunker down in a field that doesn’t exist?
To create the phantasm of a field, the research relied on Kanizsa squares. These dots have 1 / 4 eliminated, making them resemble an open-mouthed Pacman. When 4 are placed in a sq. formation with the gaps dealing with inward, a viewer can “see” a sq. that isn’t there.
The scientists roped in cat house owners who placed Kanizsa squares of their properties. The objective was to see if their cats would understand the two-dimensional define of a sq. and sit within the “invisible” field. The house owners additionally needed to place a second Kanizsa association close by that didn’t kind a sq.. Remarkably, the cats extra incessantly sat within the Kanizsa squares that shaped the phantasm of a field than the one which didn’t.[10]
