Category Archives: Cats

How a Family Dog May Lower a Child’s Asthma Risk

by Agata Blaszczak-Boxe, Contributing Writer   |   November 02, 2015

A doctor treats a young boy with asthma
Asthma attacks tend to surge with the start of a new school year, experts say.
Credit: Child with asthma photo via Shutterstock

Children who are raised in households with dogs or farm animals during their first year of life may have a lower risk of asthma a few years later, a new study suggests.

In the study, the researchers looked at early exposure to dogs and farm animals and the rate of asthma among about 377,000 preschool-age and 276,000 school-age children in Sweden.

Among the school-age kids in the study, those who had been exposed to dogs during their first year of life were 13 percent less likely to have asthma at age 6, compared with the school-age kids who had not been exposed to dogs in their first year of life, the researchers found.

Based on the new findings, researchers can confidently “say that Swedish children with dogs in their homes are at lower risk of asthma at age 6, and that this risk reduction is seen also in children to parents with asthma,” said study author Tove Fall, an associate professor of Uppsala University in Sweden.

The researchers also found that, the school-age kids who were exposed to farm animals during their first year of life were 52 percent less likely to have asthma at age 6 than those who had not been exposed to farm animals during their first year of life. [10 Things You Didn’t Know About Dogs]

Among the preschool-age children, those who were exposed to farm animals during their first year were 31 percent less likely to have asthma when they were between 1 and 5 years old, compared with the kids who were not exposed to farm animals during their first year of life, according to the study, published today (Nov. 2) in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

In the study, the researchers looked at diagnoses of asthma obtained from the National Patient Register in Sweden. They also examined data on prescribed asthma drugs dispensed at pharmacies in Sweden. The researchers also looked at whether the kids’ parents were registered as dog owners during the child’s entire first year of life, and whether the parents reported that they worked with farm animals. The data in the study were analyzed from January 2007, through September 2012.

The researchers said they don’t know for sure what exactly may explain the link between early exposure to animals and a reduced risk of asthma.

“It might be due to a single factor, or more likely, a combination of several factors related to a dog ownership lifestyle or dog-owners’ attitudes, such as kids’ exposure to household dirt and pet dust, time spent outdoors or being physically active,” Fall told Live Science. “As a parent in a dog-and-baby-household, it is nearly impossible to keep everything clean, and maybe this is a good thing for your baby’s future health.”

Currently, one of the main hypotheses that aim to explain the link between a lower risk of asthma and early exposure to pets is that “kids in animal environments breathe air that contains more bacteria and bacterial fragments, which actually could lower their risk of asthma,” she said.

Previous research on having pets and the risk of asthma in kids has yielded mixed results. For example, the results of a 2001 review of previous studies suggested that exposure to pets was linked to an increased risk of asthma in children. But a 2012 review suggested that exposure to pets, especially dogs, was tied to a decreased risk of asthma and allergies in childhood.

“My take-home message from this study is that parents at this point do not need to worry about keeping their dog or getting a puppy when expecting a baby for fear of asthmatic disease,” Fall said. “I do want to be clear that this recommendation is valid only for families without a child already having allergies. If they already have a furred-animal-allergic child, we do not recommend them to get a furred pet.”

The new findings are in line with the so-called hygiene hypothesis, said Dr. Purvi Parikh, an allergist and immunologist with Allergy & Asthma Network, a nonprofit organization that promotes allergy research and education, who was not involved in the new study.

According to this hypothesis, being exposed to bacteria early in life is crucial for shaping a healthy immune system, and may play a role in modifying a person’s risk of developing asthma and allergies.

“With allergies and asthma, it is partially genetic, but studies like this do show us that your environment does play a key role in the development of your immune system, and the development of allergies and asthma,” Parikh told Live Science.

Follow Agata Blaszczak-Boxe on Twitter. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science.

Editor’s Recommendations

Agata Blaszczak-Boxe.

AGATA BLASZCZAK-BOXE Agata Blaszczak-Boxe is a contributing writer for Live Science. She covers health, psychology and paleontology, as well as other science topics. Agata has a Master of Arts degree from the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. When she is not writing, she can be found reading food blogs, lifting weights or playing with her two attention-hungry cats.

Follow Agata on Twitter.

Muezza, the Islamic prophet Muhammad’s favorite cat.

Muezza (or Muʿizza) (Arabic: معزة‎) is said to have been the Islamic prophet Muhammad‘s favorite cat.[1][2]

History

It is told that Muhammad awoke one day to the sounds of the Adhan, the Muslim daily call to prayer. Preparing to attend, he began to dress himself; however, he soon discovered his cat Muezza sleeping on the sleeve of his prayer robe. Rather than wake her, he used a pair of scissors to cut the sleeve off, leaving the cat undisturbed. When he returned from the mosque, Muhammad received a bow from Muezza in gratitude. He then stroked his beloved cat three times.[1][2]

History books also record that the Sufi leader Ahmed ar-Rifa’i cut his sleeve because a cat was sleeping on it, then stitched it up later and said “nothing changed”.[3]

However, Muhammad in other hadiths commanded that animals be treated kindly, giving the example of a man who goes to heaven for getting water from a well for a thirsty dog,[4]and another woman who goes to hell because she kept a cat locked up, not feeding it, nor allowing it to forage for its own sustenance.[5]

Additionally, a UK-based pet food company, Halal Pet Products Ltd, produces what they claim to be a completely halal cat food, which they named Muezza Pure.[6] The company justifies their development of the product by asserting that, while there are no laws in Islam prohibiting animals from eating haram foods, Muslims are forbidden to handle or feed haram foods, such as pork and carrion, to animals.[6]

References

  1. a b Geyer, Georgie Anne (2004). When Cats Reigned Like Kings: On the Trail of the Sacred Cats. Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-4697-9.
  2. a b Stall, Sam (2007). 100 Cats Who Changed Civilization: History’s Most Influential Felines. Quirk Books. ISBN 978-1-59474-163-0.
  3. Al-Thahabi, Shamsuddin. “الرفاعي”, Siyar A’lam Al-Nubala. Retrieved on 24 October 2014.
  4. http://library.islamweb.net/emainpage/index.php?page=showfatwa&Option=FatwaId&Id=49156
  5. Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj. صحيح مسلم. Retrieved on 24 October 2014.
  6. a b .http://www.halalpetproducts.co.uk/

The domestic cat is a revered animal in Islam.[1] Admired for its cleanliness as well as for being loved by the prophet Muhammad, the cat is considered “the quintessential pet” by Muslims.[2]

Origins of reverence

Cats have been venerated in the Near East since antiquity, a tradition adopted by Islam, albeit in a much modified form.[3] Muhammad is reported to have said that “a love of cats is an aspect of faith”; according to other hadiths, he prohibited the persecution and killing of cats. The prophet purportedly allowed a cat to give birth on his cloak, and cut off the sleeve of his prayer robe rather than wake his favourite cat, a female named Muezza, who was sleeping on it.[2] This fits in with the theme of compassion in Islam.

Cat resting on a pillow next to an imam in Cairo, by John Frederick Lewis

 One of Muhammad’s companions was known as Abu Hurairah (literally: “Father of the Kitten”) for his attachment to cats.[1] Abu Hurairah claimed that he had heard the Prophet declare that a woman went to Hell for starving a female kitten and not providing her with any water, but this was disputed by the Prophet’s widow Aisha.[4] According to legend, Abu Hurairah’s cat saved Muhammad from a snake.[2] The grateful prophet stroked the cat’s back and forehead, thus blessing all cats with the righting reflex. The stripes some cats have on their foreheads are believed to mark the touch of Muhammad’s fingers.[5] However, many Muslims do not believe all hadith are 100% accurate.

History

The American poet and travel author Bayard Taylor (1825-1878) was astonished when he discovered a Syrian hospital where cats roamed freely. The institution, in which domestic felines were sheltered and nourished, was funded by a waqf, along with caretakers’ wages, veterinary care and cat food. Edward William Lane (1801-1876), British Orientalist who resided in Cairo, described a cat garden originally endowed by the 13th-century Egyptian sultan Baibars, whose European contemporaries held a very different attitude towards cats, eating them or killing them under papal decrees.[2] Aside from protecting granaries and food stores from pests, cats were valued by the paper-based Arab-Islamicate cultures for preying on mice that destroyed books. For that reason, cats are often depicted in paintings alongside Islamic scholars and bibliophiles. The medieval Egyptian zoologist Al-Damiri (1344-1405) wrote that the first cat was created when God caused a lion to sneeze, after animals on Noah’s Ark complained of mice.[2]

Hygiene and neutering

Cat outside a mosque in Şirince, Turkey, with people praying in the background

In Islamic tradition, cats are admired for their cleanliness. They are thought to be ritually clean, unlike dogs, and are thus allowed to enter homes[2] and even mosques, including Masjid al-Haram. Food sampled by cats is considered halal and water from which cats have drunk is permitted for wudu.[2] Furthermore, there is a widespread belief among Muslims that cats seek out people who are praying.[1]

Muslim scholars are divided on the issue of neutering animals. Most, however, maintain that neutering cats is allowed “if there is some benefit in neutering the cat and if that will not cause its death”.[6] Muhammad ibn al Uthaymeen, a 20th-century Saudi Arabian Sunni imam, preached:

If there are too many cats and they are a nuisance, and if the operation will not harm them, then there is nothing wrong with it, because this is better than killing them after they have been created. But if the cats are ordinary cats and are not causing a nuisance, perhaps it is better to leave them alone to reproduce.[6]

References

  1. a b c Glassé, Cyril (2003). The New Encyclopedia of Islam. Rowman Altamira. p. 102. ISBN 0759101906.
  2. a b c d e f g Campo, Juan Eduardo (2009). Encyclopedia of Islam. Infobase Publishing. p. 131. ISBN 1438126964.
  3. Baldick, Julian (2012). Mystical Islam: An Introduction to Sufism. I.B.Tauris. p. 155. ISBN 1780762313.
  4. Kurzman, Charles (1998). Liberal Islam: A Source Book. Oxford University Press. p. 121. ISBN 0195116224.
  5. Gulevich, Tanya (2005). Understanding Islam and Muslim traditions: an introduction to the religious practices, celebrations, festivals, observances, beliefs, folklore, customs, and calendar system of the world’s Muslim communities, including an overview of Islamic history and geography. Omnigraphics. p. 232. ISBN 0780807049.
  6. a b Muhammad Saed Abdul-Rahman (2004). Islam: Questions and Answers – Jurisprudence and Islamic Rulings: General and Transactions -, Part 1. MSA Publication Limited. pp. 323–325. ISBN 1861794118.

Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt

Egyptian Galleries, 3rd Floor

On public view for the first time is a gilded Leonine Goddess (770–412 B.C.E.)—a lion-headed female crouching on a papyrus-shaped base—that entered our collection in 1937 and was conserved specially for this installation. The exhibition’s cats and feline divinities range from a large limestone sculpture of a recumbent lion (305–30 B.C.E.), to a diminutive bronze sphinx of King Sheshenq (945–718 B.C.E.), to a cast-bronze figurine of a cat nursing four kittens (664–30 B.C.E.). Also included are furniture and luxury items decorated with feline features.

Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt is organized by Yekaterina Barbash, Associate Curator of Egyptian Art, Brooklyn Museum.

Ancient remains could be oldest pet cat

People tamed cats as pets at least 9500 years ago, say researchers who have unearthed the grave of a prehistoric tabby in Cyprus. The Stone Age moggy appears to have been carefully placed alongside a human corpse, along with offerings including jewellery and stone tools.

Until now, historians thought the ancient Egyptians first domesticated cats about 4000 years ago. But evidence suggests cats were culturally important outside Egypt long before that. Stone and clay figurines of cats up to 10,000 years old have turned up in Syria, Turkey and Israel.

And archaeologists have found cat bones more than 9000 years old on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, which has no native feline species.

“The first discovery of cat bones on Cyprus showed that human beings brought cats from the mainland to the islands, but we could not decide if these cats were wild or tame,” says Jean-Denis Vigne of the French research organisation CNRS and the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.

Now Vigne and his colleagues have discovered the remains of a Neolithic cat at the ancient village of Shillourokambos in Cyprus, and the manner of its burial suggests the animal was a pet.

Pointing west

The cat belonged to the species Felis silvestris, the wild cat from which domestic cats descended. Its remains lie just 40 centimetres from a 9500-year-old human grave containing valuable offerings such as polished stones and seashells.

Furthermore, the human and cat skeletons have identical states of preservation. The skeletons were positioned symmetrically, with both heads pointing west, which may have been intentional.

The cat died when it was about eight months old, and while the cause of death is a mystery, there are no signs on the bones that the animal was butchered for food.

Vigne thinks the proximity of the human skeleton suggests a strong bond with the cat, which might have been killed to go to the grave with its master. It would have made sense for early agricultural societies to mingle with cats, he adds, because cats could have killed the mice that nibbled precious grain supplies.

Journal reference: Science (vol 304, p 259)

By Hazel Muir

Oldest Known Pet Cat? 9,500-Year-Old Burial Found on Cyprus

by John Pickrell
for National Geographic News

April 8, 2004

Since at least the time of the ancient Egyptians, cats have been cherished as companions, worshipped as idols, and kept as agents of pest control and good luck. But now French archaeologists have found evidence that our close relationship with cats may have begun much earlier.

The carefully interred remains of a human and a cat were found buried with seashells, polished stones, and other decorative artifacts in a 9,500-year-old grave site on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. This new find, from the Neolithic village of Shillourokambos, predates early Egyptian art depicting cats by 4,000 years or more.Jean-Denis Vigne, an archaeologist with the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, and colleagues describe the find in tomorrow’s edition of the research journal Science. The researchers write that the joint burial indicates a strong association between the human and cat and that the feline is possibly the world’s oldest known pet cat.

“The process and timing of cat domestication has been terrifically difficult to document,” said Melinder Zeder, a curator of Old World archaeology at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and president of the International Council for Archaeozoology.

“In the absence of a collar around its neck, the deliberate interment of this animal with a human makes a strong case that cats had a special place in the daily lives, and in the afterlives, of residents of Shillourokambos,” Zeder said.

Spiritual Significance

Most early evidence of cat domestication comes from ancient Egypt. Some experts believe that the Egyptians may have tamed and bred felines to produce a distinct species by the 20th or 19th century B.C.

Cats are frequently represented in Egyptian mythology in the form of the feline goddesses Bastet, Sekhmet, and other deities. Cat art and mummified remains are known from as far back as 4,000 years ago.

But researchers have also stumbled across hints that cats were domesticated much earlier. Experts have found 10,000-year-old engravings and pottery that depict cats dating to the Neolithic period (late Stone Age), Vigne said. He notes such finds provide evidence that, even then, cats had a spiritual significance.

More recently, cat jawbones and other remains not directly linked to human burials have revealed that wild cats were at least associated with early Neolithic settlements on Cyprus, Vigne said.

Cats are not native to Cyprus, an island 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) south of mainland Turkey. Given that fact, researchers behind today’s announcement write that humans must have introduced cats to the island. Whether or not early peoples domesticated the species remains unclear, the researchers write, noting that foxes were also introduced at the same time.

Together Forever

Zeder, the Smithsonian curator, notes that the difficulty in determining precisely when cats were first domesticated is that cats were likely “commensal domesticates.” The phrase describes animals like mice, rats, sparrows, and early dogs, among others, that weren’t raised by people but nonetheless were attracted to human habitations.

Such animals feed on stored food or trash or they prey on other commensals. Which is why finding cat remains in or near ancient human settlements doesn’t necessarily imply the animals had been adopted as pets.

To complicate the issue, domestic cats are physically very similar to their wild counterparts and cannot easily be distinguished on that basis, said Zeder, who also serves on the board of the National Geographic Society’s Committee for Research and Exploration.

“What makes this [new] find special, is [the cat’s] intentional placement with a human burial,” Zeder said.

The cat and human remains described in today’s announcement were unearthed in 2001. The grave also contained offerings such as ochre and flint tools, axes, and seashells.

A combination of factors is seen as evidence that the cat and human were intentionally buried together including the good state of preservation of both remains, the burial of an entire cat without any signs of butchering, and the proximity of the skeletons—just 40 centimeters (16 inches) apart. Analysis suggests that the cat was just eight months old at death and was possibly killed in order to be buried alongside the human.

“The first discovery of cat bones on Cyprus showed that human beings brought cats from the mainland to the islands. But we couldn’t decide if these cats were wild or tame,” said study author Vigne. “With this discovery, we can now decide that cats were linked with humans.”

He notes that wild cats may have been drawn to settlements where grain stores attracted rats and mice. Perhaps people soon realized they could perhaps use the felines to control these pests.

Domestication Experiments

Cats may have been one of many animals “intentionally transported to Cyprus as some kind of gamestocking plan,” Zeder said, noting that the research by Vigne and his colleagues reveals that many non-native wild animals—including pigs, goats, deer, and cattle—were transported to Cyprus “on a kind of Noah’s ark.”

The scientists’ findings also reveal that the residents of the ancient village of Shillourokambos were beginning domestication experiments with many such livestock species.

“[Perhaps] it’s not surprising to find evidence of taming cats and their habituation with human settlements at such an early date,” Zeder added. “What’s really surprising is that we haven’t seen more of this kind of association at an earlier time.”

In contrast to cats, intentional burials of dogs and puppies with humans occurred earlier and have been more common in the archaeological record. The earliest are known from the Natufian stage, 12,000 years ago in Israel.

Dog People vs. Cat People: Who’s More Outgoing? More Intelligent?

by Rachael Rettner, Senior Writer   |   May 27, 2014 12:25pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO — “Dog people” and “cat people” really do have different personalities, according to a new study.

People who said they were dog lovers in the study tended to be more lively — meaning they were more energetic and outgoing — and also tended to follow rules closely. Cat lovers, on the other hand, were more introverted, more open-minded and more sensitive than dog lovers. Cat people also tended to be non-conformists, preferring to be expedient rather than follow the rules.

And in a finding that’s sure to spark rivalries among pet owners, cat lovers scored higher on intelligence than dog lovers.

“It makes sense that a dog person is going to be more lively, because they’re going to want to be out there, outside, talking to people, bringing their dog,” Guastello said. “Whereas, if you’re more introverted, and sensitive, maybe you’re more at home reading a book, and your cat doesn’t need to go outside for a walk.”

The researchers surveyed 600 college students, asking whether they would identify themselves as dog lovers or cat lovers, and what qualities they found most attractive in their pets. Participants also answered a slew of questions to assess their personality.

More people said they were dog lovers than cat lovers: About 60 percent of participants identified themselves as dog people, compared with 11 percent who said they were cat people. (The rest said they liked both animals, or neither animal.)

Dog lovers found companionship to be the most attractive quality in their pet dogs, while cat people liked the affection from their cats.

It’s possible that people may select pets based on their own personality, Guastello said. For example, cats are often seen as independent animals that keep to themselves, and are cautious of others.

“If you’re like that, you appreciate that in an animal, it’s a better match for you,” Guastello said.

Studying the reasons people identify as cat or dog lovers may also improve pet therapy, leading to better matches between owners and pets who participate in pet therapy, the researcher said.

Because the study involved college students, it’s not known whether the results apply to other age groups, Guastello said. But previous studies have had similar findings. A 2010 study of more than 4,500 people found that dog lovers tend to be more extroverted (or outgoing), and conscientious (or rule-following).

[Here, Kitty, Kitty: 10 Facts for Cat Lovers]

Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. FollowLive Science @livescience, Facebook&Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Why Do Cats Bring Home Dead Animals?

by Elizabeth Palermo, Staff Writer   |   March 29, 2013 04:42pm ET

cat-dead-mouse

Cats bring home dead mice for a good reason. Credit: Nicholas Rjabow / Shutterstock.com

It’s an all-too-familiar story for the owners of indoor-outdoor cats: You open the door to let Kitty in for dinner and what does she bring with her? A dead rodent, of course.
Such impolite behavior leaves many cat owners scratching their heads. Why, after all, would your cat need to kill her meals when that bowl of Friskies is filled to the brim? Is she just a whole lot meaner than she looks?

Before determining that their cat is simply a cold-blooded killer, cat owners should understand a few facts about what’s driving their pet’s behavior.

Though they were first domesticated nearly 10,000 years ago, cats retain the keen hunting instincts of their wild ancestors, as well as the simple gut that allows them to digest raw meat.

However, many cats don’t eat their prey, and sometimes they don’t even kill it. (If you’ve ever had to chase an injured squirrel out of your kitchen, then you’ve seen this behavior firsthand.) Spayed female cats are the most likely to bring gory gifts to their owners. But they have their reasons.

In the wild, cat mothers teach their young how to eat their food by bringing home dead or injured prey. Domestic cats are no different. But in this modern age of spayed domestic cats, many female felines have no young to whom they need to pass on their hunting wisdom.

By leaving a dead animal on the back porch, your cat is acting out its natural role as mother and teacher. You, her loving owner, represent her surrogate family. And frankly, she knows you would never have been able to catch that delicious mouse on your own.

So before you chastise your cat for her deadly habits, consider what her behavior really means. From eating to using the litter box, your cat’s habits are based on a highly evolved survival instinct.

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Internet Cat Videos Keep You Purring, Study Finds

Internet Cat Videos Keep You Purring, Study Finds

by Elizabeth Palermo, Staff Writer   |   June 18, 2015 07:28am ET

Internet cat videos don’t just result in major “LOLs,” they also deliver significant health benefits, a new study suggests.

That’s right: Watching the online antics of Lil Bub, Grumpy Cat, Colonel Meow and all their kitty friends can boost your energy level, heighten your positive emotions and decrease your negative feelings, according to Jessica Gall Myrick, a media researcher at Indiana University in Bloomington.

“Some people may think watching online cat videos isn’t a serious enough topic for academic research, but the fact is that it’s one of the most popular uses of the Internet today,” Myrick said in a statement. “If we want to better understand the effects the Internet may have on us as individuals and on society, then researchers can’t ignore Internet cats anymore.” [Here Kitty, Kitty: 10 Facts for Cat Lovers]

Nearly 2 million cat videos were posted to YouTube in 2014 alone, according to Myrick, who noted that these videos received almost 26 billion views. In fact, cat videos received more views per video than any of YouTube’s other content categories, Myrick’s research suggests.

Myrick tapped into the overwhelming popularity of cat videos to conduct the study, which relied on survey results from approximately 7,000 cat video viewers. Mike Bridavsky, an Indiana resident and the owner of Lil Bub (one of the Internet’s most beloved felines), aided her in distributing the survey on social media.

Survey respondents answered questions about their cat video viewing habits across a variety of sites. (The most popular places for tuning in turned out to be YouTube, Facebook and I Can Has Cheezburger). Myrick also asked participants to describe how these videos affected their moods.

The results were overwhelmingly positive, she found. Participants said they felt more energetic and more positive after watching cat-related online media than they had before tuning in. They also reported feeling fewer negative emotions — including anxiety, annoyance and sadness — after viewing their favorite Internet cats. Many survey respondents said they viewed cat videos while at work or while studying, but Myrick found that the pleasure gleaned from watching cat videos seemed to outweigh any guilt respondents felt about procrastinating.

“Even if they are watching cat videos on YouTube to procrastinate or while they should be working, the emotional payoff may actually help people take on tough tasks afterward,” Myrick said.

A study conducted in 2012 supports Myrick’s findings. Researchers in Japan found that looking at images of cute animals can actually improve workers’ performance on the job, increasing their attention and promoting careful behavior.

One of the questions Myrick hoped to answer with the new study was whether cat videos might be used as a kind of low-cost alternative to pet therapy, a practice in which real animals (including cats and dogs) are used to help people recover from, or cope with, various health conditions. The study didn’t find any definitive evidence that cat videos are a viable alternative to in-the-flesh pet therapy, but this is one area that Myrick said should be explored going forward.

The study also helped Myrick put together a character profile of cat video aficionados. She found that only about 36 percent of participants in the study identified as “cat people.” The majority (60 percent) said they like dogs just as well as cats. However, those who owned cats themselves were more likely to watch Internet videos of these fuzzy felines. Also more likely to watch cats online were those who identified with certain character traits, such as agreeableness and shyness.

The study was published online June 12 in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.

Follow Elizabeth Palermo @techEpalermo. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Why Do Cats Like Boxes?

by Joseph Castro, Live Science Contributor   |   May 08, 2014 03:17pm ET

But why are our feline friends so drawn to boxes and other enclosed objects, including bags, laundry baskets, suitcases and backpacks?

Seeking out confined spaces is an instinctual behavior for cats. In the wild, these areas allow the animals to both hide from predators and surreptitiously stalk prey.

“Cats like boxes because they are cryptic animals; they like to hide,” Stephen Zawistowski, science adviser for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, told Business Insider. “And a box gives them a place of safety and security.”

While inside a box, cats feel that they cannot be snuck up on from behind or the side — anything that wants to approach them must come directly into their field of vision. In effect, such hiding spaces allow them to watch the world around them without being seen.

And if something interesting passes in front of the cat — be it prey or a toy — it can dash out to get the object, and then quickly return to its safety spot.

Boxes also provide cats with a cozy, safe place to sleep, which is very important given that the felines sleep for up to 20 hours a day.

Follow Joseph Castro on Twitter. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+.

Why Cats Have Vertical Pupils

by Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor   |   August 07, 2015 02:25pm ET

Have you ever wondered why your cat’s eyes have those creepy vertical slits for pupils? A new study suggests the reason may lie in cats’ preferred mode of hunting.

Vertical-slit pupils are most common among nocturnal predators that ambush their prey, according to the new research, published today (Aug. 7) in the journal Science Advances. Most likely, this pupil shape provides the sharpest way to gauge distance for a prey-snatching leap, the study found.

The new research doesn’t only demystify the housecat, however; it also reveals that the bizarre horizontal, rectangular pupils sported by goats and sheep likely help these prey animals scan the horizon for predators — and watch the terrain when sprinting from danger. Moreover, circular pupils tend to be found on tall, active predators that are awake during the day. (Sound familiar, humans?) [Video: Why Goats Have Rectangle Eyes]

The observation that predators tend to have vertical pupils and prey horizontal ones dates back to the 1940s, but no one had ever quantified that difference, said Martin Banks, a vision researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. To find out if there was truth behind the casual observations, Banks and his team assembled a database of 214 land-based species. Then, they analyzed the pupil shape of each species in relation to the animal’s foraging habits and day or nighttime activity. (The team left out birds and fish in order to limit the complications of varying visual environments.)

Ambush predators, like many cats and snakes, were most likely to sport vertical-slit pupils, particularly when those animals were active at night. The reason for this correlation most likely has to do with the mechanics of the eye, Banks told Live Science. Ambush hunters need to be very good at gauging depth so they can effectively leap out at their prey.

There are two ways to gauge depth without moving. In one method, stereopsis, the brain compares the distance between the two images returned by each eye to gauge depth. (Hold out your finger, focus on it and close each eye in succession. That “jump” you see is the distance used in stereopsis.) [Images: See the World From a Cat’s Eye]

The other method, blur, takes advantage of the fuzziness of objects behind and in front of the spot on which you’re focusing.

As it turns out, the side-to-side displacement used in stereopsis is easier to gauge using vertical lines and contours than it is with horizontal ones. Thus, Banks said, the vertical pupil provides the best view for stereopsis.

To judge horizontal distances, though, cats and other slit-pupil predators likely use blur, Banks said. To maximize blur, the pupil must open wide. And to maximize blur for horizontal lines, the pupil must open wide from top to bottom. In other words, the ideal shape is narrow horizontally and wide vertically — precisely the arrangement of a cat’s eye.

“This is the right arrangement to maximize stereo and blur as cues to distance simultaneously,” Banks said.

Pupils for prey

On the other side of the spectrum are the weird rectangular pupils of goats, sheep, horses and some toads. Banks and his colleagues found that, of 42 herbivorous prey animals in their database, 36 had horizontal pupils. To find out why, they created a computer model of a sheep’s eye and measured its optics. [Vision Quiz: What Can Animals See?]

To expand their field of vision, sheep and other grazing prey animals sport horizontally elongated pupils.

To expand their field of vision, sheep and other grazing prey animals sport horizontally elongated pupils. Credit: Gordon Love, Durham University

The results revealed that a horizontal pupil minimizes input from above and below, and maximizes input from the front and back of an animal, creating a panoramic view. Plus, most of these prey animals have eyes on the sides of their heads, further improving that view.

“It allows them to see better in front and behind, and maybe not to be dazzled by sunlight from above,” Banks said.

Even more interesting, Banks said, was the discovery that these pupils also minimize the blur of horizontal contours, creating a sharper image of the ground and upcoming terrain. That’s pretty important for an animal that might need to drop everything and run if a mountain lion pounces — especially an animal with its eyes on the side of its head, Banks said.

“Imagine your eyes were looking 70 degrees [off] from where you’re running,” he said. “You’d be terrible at it.”

Partway through developing this theory, Banks and his colleagues realized they might have a problem, he said. A goat’s horizontal eyes would have to stay in line with the horizon for the animal to benefit from this additional clarity. If the animal’s pupils didn’t line up when it was grazing, head down, “there goes our idea,” Banks said.

He “dashed off” to a local zoo while one of his colleagues headed to a farm near his home in England, each with a video camera in hand. What they saw put their theory back in the game: Goats, sheep and horses all rotate their eyes — one clockwise and one counterclockwise — to keep their pupils in line with the horizon when grazing.

Banks could find no reference to this talent in the scientific literature but said he and his team “kind of doubt” they discovered it. “I can’t imagine that this missed everyone’s attention for the last couple hundred years,” he said.

Eye evolution

If vertical pupils are for hunting and horizontal pupils are for fleeing, where does that leave round pupils like the ones humans have? Those results, Banks said, are a bit less clear. Animals with round pupils tend to be active predators or foragers that are awake both day and night. But the correlation between pupil shape and these traits was not as strong as it was for vertical and horizontal pupils.

Finally, the researchers created some family trees of cats and canids (a group that includes dogs and foxes), to find out whether pupil shape evolved only once in these families or whether it pops up independently on multiple occasions. They found that strange pupil shapes have evolved many times.

“It’s just kind of come and gone depending on their niche,” Banks said. “We think that whatever pressure there was to evolve a certain pupil shape happened multiple times, not just once.”

Distance judgments aren’t the only reason animals might evolve a certain pupil shape, Banks added. Other factors, such as color vision and pattern recognition, probably play a role.

The researchers now want to study the interaction between the retinaand the pupil, particularly in horizontal eyes. Many animals with horizontal pupils have a “smear” retina, Banks said, with higher densities of light receptors in a horizontal streak across the retina. (Humans, by contrast, have a circular area called the fovea that is particularly dense.)

The team also wants to look at even odder eyes. Some lizards, for example, have pupils that narrow into three or four vertically stacked pinholes. Cephalopods like cuttlefish have truly bizarre, “W”-shaped pupils. And some skates and rays have pupils shaped like crescent moons.

“There are a lot of really weird ones out there,” Banks said.

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