A little while ago I was looking into why cats sleep so much and I learned that, like humans, cats go through REM sleep. REM sleep is when we as humans have dreams, so it is thought to be likely that cats also dream during REM sleep. But, what do cats dream about? Do cats have bad dreams? Without being able to ask a cat about their sleep, we can't know for sure if cats have dreams, but Cats.com mentions a study done on rats that looked at their brainwaves while they were asleep and while awake. It found that the rats have similar brain activity when they asleep than they did while going through a maze, which suggests that...
This week, I wondered - do cats like music? If so, what music do cats like? Is there a music for calming cats? According to DailyPaws.com, we can't actually determine whether cats like music, but there have been studies done that show that classical music can lower cats stress, while other music, like heavy metal, actually raises it. Catster.com points out that cats have very sensitive hearing and so music that sounds good to us might be overwhelming to them. David Teie, a cellist for the the National Symphony Orchestra, had a theory that different species will like different sounds based on their own brain development and vocalizations. He set out to create species specific music using elements of that...
If your cat sits on your head when you are trying to sleep, or decides to sing the song of their people at 4 AM, you might think cats are nocturnal, but according to cattitudedaily.com, cats are crepuscular, not nocturnal! So, what is the meaning of crepuscular? According to A-Zanimals.com, a crepuscular animal is most active during periods of low light, like dawn and dusk. Their peak activity is in the time in between day and night, in the early morning and early evening. They tend to rest during the day and during the night. Besides cats, other crepuscular animals include deer, rabbits, coyotes, foxes and even fireflies. Why are cats crepuscular? A-Zanimals.com says that in general crepuscular animals have adapted...
This week I wanted to look into whether cats are self aware. First off, what does it mean to be self aware? According to biologyinsights.com, self awareness is the ability of an organism to perceive itself as an individual entity. They say that beyond just being conscious, or aware of external stimuli, this means that you are aware that your body is seperate and under your control, which is bodily self awareness. Going deeper, there is more complex self awareness which means you can think about your own thoughts. A common test used by scientists to investigate self awareness in animals is called the mirror self-recognition (or MSR) test. This is also sometimes called the mark test or red dot...
A little while ago I was looking into the saying that cats have 9 lives, and saw that one of the reasons for that saying is that cats have a remarkable ability to land on their feet and survive falls from great heights. But, do cats ALWAYS land on their feet? And how do cats land on their feet? Do cats always land on their feet? Cats have remarkable agility and instincts to right themselves when falling, but no, they aren't always able to land on their feet. According to diamondpet.com, the height of the fall comes into play. They cite a study from the July–August 1998 issue of Annals of Improbable Research where an Italian researcher tried to figure out how...
