Cats’ common yet strange tricks really make them “cats”!

Leviathan Press:

There has always been such a saying that when a cat brings back a bird or mouse from outside and puts it next to you, it is showing goodwill to you: Look, I didn't even want to eat it, so I'm giving you the fruits of my hunting. From experience, this does seem to make sense - even if it doesn't mean to give you the captured prey, at least it can show that putting the spoils next to you is also a great trust in you.

But having said that, of the five cats I have at home, none of them are superstars with these magical skills... They will chase and play with things that are thrown, but they will never bring them back.

According to my wife, our cat, Calvin, showed his love of fetching when he was about a year old. One evening, my wife threw a ball of yarn across the apartment. Unexpectedly, Calvin immediately jumped up and chased the toy, picked it up in his mouth, and then happily walked to my wife's feet and dropped the yarn.

In the months that followed, Calvin became obsessed with this new game. He began to demand this activity every day after dinner, meowing and rubbing his tail against our calves. He also began to put his paws into our pockets to search for anything we might throw out. We were amazed at this little guy and how strangely, like a dog, he chased.

But the fact that he fetches doesn’t make him a special case. Mikel Delgado, a cat behavior consultant at Feline Minds, told me that fetching cats is a minority, but not a minority. Although data is scarce, a limited study of pet owners in 1986 found that nearly 16% of cats fetched.[1]

© Tenor

Delgado, who has three fetching cats of his own—Ruby, Coriander, and Professor Scribbles—is now working with a newer, larger dataset (not yet published), which suggests that the percentage of fetching cats may be even higher.[2] (The 1980s study mentioned above may also have had some problems with its methodology: fetching was listed as one of several “tricks” reported by owners of cats, along with “interesting behavior” and “understanding everything.”)

Although relatively common, cat fetching is still strange. In the wild, repeatedly retrieving an object, especially for another species, is not a common behavior. Domestic dogs (especially retrievers) fetch because we breed them to do so; puppies are expected to exhibit this behavior, and they are rewarded with treats for retrieving a thrown ball.

With cats, however, “it’s not a trait that we actively selected for,” says Wailani Sung, a veterinary behaviorist at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in San Francisco. That makes fetching somewhat paradoxical — a behavior deeply rooted in the wild, yet triggered by playful interactions between us and our cats.

© Gifrific

Although the behavior apparently exists in a minority of cats, fetching does appear to come naturally to some cats. A preprint study earlier this year (not yet published in a scientific journal) surveyed 1,154 fetching cats and found that nearly 95% of them performed the behavior without training.[3]

From an evolutionary perspective, this seems to make sense. Fetching is really just a set of behaviors that includes observation, pursuit, catching, and retrieving. Kathryn Lord, an evolutionary biologist at the Broad Institute who also has a fetching cat, says the first three modes have become classic hunting techniques for predators[4], but retrieving may be a bit of a mystery.

© Meowingtons

As solitary animals, cats have little natural incentive to share what they catch, Christopher Dickman, an ecologist at the University of Sydney, told me. He has not observed much catching behavior among wild cats in his own research, nor among the six domestic cats he has kept.

But cats already have some elements of retrieving behavior. As Sarah Ellis, head of feline mental health and behavior at the International Center for Feline Care, points out, mother cats bring live prey back to their kittens to teach them how to hunt. And both male and female cats are known to move food to a safer location for eating.

Perhaps, Dickman told me, as cats are repeatedly invited into human homes and praised for eliminating pests, some of their fetch-like behaviors are rewarded. Sadly, domestic cats with access to the outdoors are notorious for bringing home wild birds, rodents, amphibians, and reptiles. And for indoor-only cats, chasing a furry object, taking a bite, and then carrying it to safety can be a fun way to satisfy some of that predatory urge.

© natsdorf

Cats’ fetching behavior isn’t exactly Labrador-like. The preprint study mentioned above found that among the 900 owners surveyed, they played fetch with their cats no more than 10 times a month, and that the cats often initiated and ended these games. This fits my experience. When Calvin wanted to play fetch, he didn’t care what we were doing at the time (such as eating, working out, or even cooking). And when he was done playing, he would put down his toy and saunter away, sometimes even stopping suddenly in the middle of a chase. The same is true for Delgado’s cats. “They seem to be completely on their own accord,” she said.

This is consistent with the perception that cats and dogs behave differently. Although they both enjoy playing and chasing, dogs may be more likely to get a thrill from obeying and pleasing us. We’ve trained dogs for thousands of years to respond to our praise, so much so that they can read our facial expressions and body language; cats are more likely to view their owners as “just batteries that make toys move,” Ellis told me. If fetching is an inherently social process—organisms reading each other’s signals—then cats may lack the built-in adaptations.

This difference in fetching with dogs may be due in part to human expectations. “Most people think cats don’t fetch, that it’s a dog thing,” Zazie Todd, an animal behavior expert and author of Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy, told me. If we were more aware of it, or encouraged it (especially when they’re young), more cats might learn to fetch.

Plus, as Delgado points out, it takes some patience to figure out what types of toys felines are most eager to retrieve. Calvin, for example, is fascinated only by furry, mouse-like toys. Lord's cat is obsessed with faux beads. Song told me that many dogs are also picky about what they're willing to bring back, and their selection of chew-resistant and tossable toys just happens to be wider and more benefited from advertising.

© Parade Pets

Why some cats are more willing to fetch than others remains as much of a mystery as why they fetch in the first place. Several experts told me that they see the behavior most often in kittens, when the animals may be trying out what it means to hunt; in many cases, fetching behavior seems to lose its appeal as they age, said Jemma Forman, a psychologist at the University of Sussex and one of the authors of the preprint study.

There may also be a genetic component, as there is with dogs: The limited research on the subject suggests that certain interactive and confident cat breeds, like Siamese and Abyssinians, are more prone to fetching. Delgado’s three cats are sisters, and all enjoy fetching, albeit to varying degrees. Then again, while Calvin is great at fetching, his brother Hobbes doesn’t seem to get the point—once he pounces on a toy, he’d rather hide under a blanket with it than hand it over to us.

Cats’ peculiar behavior of fetching can seem extra special to those who are lucky enough to experience it firsthand. After decades of working with cats, Delgado is only now getting her first fetching cats. “I was always a little jealous” of other fetching cat owners, she told me, and she was delighted when she first spotted her own fetching cat.

I understand the appeal. Calvin needs me to provide many things for him—food, water, tooth brushing, veterinary care. But when he explicitly invites me to play with him, I am brought into his universe and feel especially connected. He chooses to have fun, but also indicates that he would rather play with me. When Calvin tosses his toys at my feet, he is actually giving me a gift.

References:

[1]www.academia.edu/download/33317865/vlv_social_behav_of_cats.pdf[2]whatyourcatwants.com/why-do-some-cats-fetch[3]assets.res earchsquare.com/files/rs-3093688/v1/cb657b80-da3a-4134-968c-404d70ea2159.pdf?c=1688663312[4]doi.org/10.1017/9781139161800.004

By Katherine J. Wu

Translated by tamiya2

Proofreading/Rabbit's Light Footsteps

Original article/www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2023/11/cat-fetching-behavior/676078/

This article is based on the Creative Commons License (BY-NC) and is published by tamiya2 on Leviathan

The article only reflects the author's views and does not necessarily represent the position of Leviathan