Quirks and Quarks54:01Cat info — the latest science on our feline companions
Cats have lived alongside people for millennia, however there’s nonetheless a lot we do not learn about our companions. How do cats purr? Why do they appear so irritated on a regular basis? And when and the place did cats begin sharing houses with people?
Part of the problem with discovering the solutions to those questions is the notoriously secretive nature of home cats and their unwillingness to do what they’re informed — one thing that makes learning cats in a laboratory setting fairly difficult. But advances in expertise and analysis strategies in recent years have helped to make clear some cat behaviour, pinpoint the origins of the species we all know because the home cat, and even discover a treatment for a deadly feline illness.
Here’s a few of the latest science about our feline companions.
Cats’ faces are extra expressive than you suppose
Humans have been attempting to decode the that means of their feline associates’ facial expressions for some time, making some progress in research of cat faces in interactions with people. But what are their faces doing round different cats? To discover out, researchers recorded movies at a Los Angeles, Calif., cat café to check the facial expressions the animals make whereas interacting amongst themselves.
Using a facial muscle coding system, the scientists found that cats make 276 distinct facial expressions utilizing 26 distinctive facial actions, akin to parting their lips, licking their nostril or squinting their eyes. Brittany Florkiewicz, a co-author of the new study, stated the vast majority of these expressions might be categorized as both pleasant or unfriendly. “We have been capable of finding proof for one thing referred to as a ‘play face,'” she informed Quirks & Quarks host Bob McDonald. “And we even have present research that present that huge cats are able to producing these play faces as nicely.”
Florkiewicz, who has additionally studied ape facial expressions, stated she was impressed by the vary of expressions present in cats, corresponding to over 300 expressions she has beforehand recognized in chimpanzees. “It was actually attention-grabbing to consider how domestication has formed that facial features repertoire, after which enthusiastic about comparisons that we may doubtlessly make with different species,” she stated.
Cats are constructed to purr
Regardless of what their face seems like, a telltale signal of a cheerful cat is the signature purr. But one thing that has puzzled scientists is how an animal as small as a home cat can produce sounds at such low frequencies.
Tecumseh W. Fitch studied the physiology of cat larynges — the organ behind the throat concerned in respiration and sound manufacturing, also called the voice field — to determine this out. In his analysis, he recognized a pair of fatty pads that assist decelerate the vibration of the vocal folds to make the low-frequency rumbling.
“So what we predict is that the cat is utilizing one a part of its vocal folds to supply… seems like meows. And solely utilizing the complete vocal fold with these fats inclusions to make for a lower-frequency purrs,” he informed Quirks & Quarks.
These outcomes, revealed in Current Biology, additionally problem the frequent principle of the mechanics of purring. “What was thought till our research for cats is that … every pulse of the purr was really accompanied by a muscle twitch that needed to be pushed by the cat, by a neural sign from the cat’s mind,” Fitch stated. “And what we have been capable of present is that, that is not obligatory for purring to happen.”
Cat hair may help clear up crimes
Here’s a reality that does not want a analysis paper to again it up: cat hair will get all over the place. And whereas this can be unhealthy information to your fashionable all-black outfits, it is excellent news for forensic scientists.
The potential of utilizing cat hair to resolve crimes has been recognized for a while now. In a 2023 U.K. manslaughter case, cat hairs left on the sufferer have been matched to these present in a suspect’s home, leading to a conviction. But there are some challenges to utilizing cat hair to determine wrongdoers.
Cat hair does not comprise as a lot genetic materials as a swab of saliva or a drop of blood, “so we have now to take a look at one other type,” researcher Mark Jobling informed Quirks & Quarks. “And that sort is named mitochondrial DNA.”
In a paper revealed within the journal Forensic Science International: Genetics, Jobling and his crew describe how they have been capable of extract mitochondrial DNA from cat hair. Jobling stated this take a look at “can work with as little as a single cat hair” and hairs which might be over 20 years old. This may be helpful in chilly instances the place cat hair is included within the proof, since in contrast to blood or saliva, DNA in hair degrades extra slowly over time.
Cats can get sick with coronaviruses — and higher with COVID-19 antivirals
The COVID-19 pandemic introduced additional considerations for cat house owners too, as reviews emerged of tigers and home cats testing constructive for the virus. But lengthy earlier than SARS-CoV-2, there was a special coronavirus plaguing the feline inhabitants. “The commonplace cat coronavirus, it is everywhere in the world. And most cats, in the event that they go outdoors, they catch it,” stated feline infectious illness specialist Danielle Gunn-Moore.
For most cats that catch this virus, it reveals up as some gentle diarrhea. But in a small share of animals, the virus mutates into a pandemic referred to as feline infectious peritonitis (FIP).
Until just lately, the FIP prognosis was a dying sentence. But when antiviral medication for SARS-CoV-2 grew to become available, it turned out that these medication are extremely efficient as FIP remedy. When Gunn-Moore and her colleagues examined the antiviral medication in a inhabitants of over 300 cats, treatment was effective in 85 per cent of the animals. “It’s like destiny has given us probably the most great present of … one thing we will deal with this devastating illness with,” Gunn-Moore stated.
And it got here at simply the fitting time, as a very lethal pressure of the cat coronavirus was devastating the numerous population of feral cats in Cyprus. Gunn-Moore and her colleagues at the moment are building on the success of the antiviral remedy to develop a simpler vaccine towards FIP.
Even once they’re curled up in your lap, cats have ‘one paw within the wild’
Analysis of historical cat DNA — together with quite a few cat mummies present in Egypt — has helped scientists conclude that the the home cats species, Felis catus, originated within the North African wild cat. But as creator Jonathan B. Losos explores in his new e-book, The Cat’s Meow: How the Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa, a lot of our cats’ behaviour stays on the wild facet.
“One factor about unowned out of doors cats is that they in a short time revert to their wild existence,” Losos informed Quirks & Quarks. “They have, if you’ll, one paw nonetheless within the wild, as a result of it’s totally simple for them to revert and mainly return to residing like their ancestors did, looking and getting by fairly nicely.”
Studies of feral cat colonies additionally present an inner hierarchy totally different from most different species of cats, wild or home. “Cats have a repute of being aloof loners that reside by themselves … not being very pleasant to one another. It seems that at the very least in some circumstances, that might not be farther from the reality,” Losos stated. “Domestic cats, once they’re residing at excessive densities, type into prides identical to lions.” These teams groom one another and play collectively, and even nurse one another’s young.
