Imagine you are a squirrel: Should you trust humans? Should you cross the street? How do you get ladies and food? Being a squirrel isn’t easy…but now there’s the “Squirrel Code” (spoofing something I’m obviously too old and unhip to know about) to help you survive. (May not be suitable for work)
Most scientists agree that non-human animals feel the "basic" emotions - fear, anger, happiness, surprise - or at least the animal-equivalents. Behavioral and neurological studies support that animals have, to some degree, similar emotional experiences as we do.
When it comes to more complex emotions, such as guilt, embarrassment, and sympathy, we have much less empirical support. These emotional states may require some form of theory of mind or a level of self-consciousness that we aren't sure that animals have.
The new dog-jealousy study has gotten a lot of hype and press, and now everyone thinks dogs can feel jealous. Other studies have shown that anthropomorphism may play a huge role in how we interpret the "guilty look" in dogs. I think it's a bit strange that the human researchers find the evidence more compelling than the animal cognition experts and it would have been nice if they had included a dog-cog expert on their team.
Dog owners petted a stuffed dog (or read a book or paid attention to a jack o'lantern), and the behavior of their pet dog was measured. Dogs were more likely to bark or push on the owner or investigate the object when it was a stuffed dog. I think what we can all agree on - dogs attempt to get their owner's attention when it is directed elsewhere - attention is of course a resource that is important to many pets. You can read the study here - yay open access!
I am lucky to live somewhere where we can put all of our food scraps in a compost bin and not into landfill. I'm very excited to see that NYC is following suit! I think some psychological science can be added to get everyone on board!
Camouflage is an amazing thing. This satanic leaf gecko has perfectly evolved to match its habitat - even when that habitat varies.
But what about when that habitat has completely changed? Scientists examine the outlook of the snowshoe hare, an animal that typically changes color as the weather changes to match the presence of snow in the winter...but what happens when there's no snow?
Photo via Wikimedia Commons
Do you play with your cat? How about every day? Be honest. I know most of you reading this are pretty lazy about playing with your cats (I can be too). You might even blame it on your cat…”Oh…he doesn't really like to play with toys,” “She liked to play when he was a kitten, but now that she’s older, she prefers to cuddle.” I've heard it all before and I know it’s a lie! Why? Because to cats, play should be practice for predation, and cats are natural-born killers who cannot resist the opportunity to pounce! This doesn't mean that the play is always fun for the human, who may or may not be particularly skilled at eliciting those killer behaviors in their cats. But we’ll get to that. First, let’s look at a recent study examining how play might influence the behavior of cats.
“An Owner Survey of Toys, Activities and Behavior Problems in Indoor Cats” was recently published in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior. The study was a survey of 277 veterinary clients in Tennessee who were bringing their cats in for a veterinary visit (coming for anything besides a behavior problem rendered someone eligible to participate). The goal of the study was to examine just how much playtime owners give their cats, and how this might be correlated with behavior problems.
Owners were asked standard questions about their cats (such as if they were spayed/neutered, the cats’ sex and the like). The survey also asked owners if the cats eliminate outside of the litterbox, fight with other cats, and if they bite and scratch people. They were next asked how often and long they play with their cat, and what types of toys/activities they provide for their cats (e.g. balls, mice, stuffed toys, catnip, etc.). Finally, they asked participants if they talk to their veterinarian about any behavior problems their cat might be experiencing.
On the human side of things, all owners stated that they played with their cat at least once a month, with 64% claiming to play at least twice a day. Most owners played with their cat for 5-10 minutes at a time. The majority of people (78%) reported leaving toys out all the time for their cat.
On the cat side, we've got a lot of naughty kitties out there. Sixty-one percent of owners reported at least one undesirable behavior, with many cats displaying aggression toward people (36%), closely followed by urination outside the litterbox (24%) and aggression between cats in the home (21%). Of those owners with “problem children,” only half of them had mentioned the problem to their veterinarian.
Photo by Jon Ross via Creative Commons/Flickr
Was playtime correlated with behavior problems? Maybe. The owners who played with their cats for longer periods of time reported fewer behavior problems (on average one behavior problem, compared to the 2.25 behavior problems reported by those who played with their cat for only one minute at a time). Behavior problems were strongly related to the sex of the cat, with male cats being more likely to have reported behavior issues, regardless of neuter status.
I do think we should interpret these results with some caution. First of all, we have a very small sample size of people (less than 10) who reported they only play with their cat for one minute at a time. These people may not be representative of a random sampling of people who don’t play much with their cat, and of course, we don’t know if the decreased play is the cause of the behavior problems, or the result (or because of something else altogether). We also don’t know if those who claimed to play with their cat for longer periods of time were being honest. Perhaps many of them only play for one minute as well, they just didn't feel like admitting it!
We also don’t know if people who bring their cats to the vet regularly are different from pet owners who do not. More than half of all pet cats do not get a yearly exam, due in large part to the fact that many cats are afraid of their cat carrier (a subject for another blog post!). So it’s possible that the cats represented in this survey are also somehow different from your average pet cat, for better or worse.
On behavior problems: it seems like a lot of cats are having them (more than reported in a previous study). Is this because people are making less time for their cats? Are more cats bored and indoors? (For the record, I advocate keeping cats indoors only, but it needs to be a loving, fun and stimulating environment!) They also didn't report whether age correlated with behavior problems, but I wonder if aggression toward humans is more prevalent in younger cats and kittens, with more of a playful/predatory bent, than the more fearful, defensive types of aggression problems seen in some cats.
Most people don’t mention behavior problems to their veterinarian, and while the authors suggest that veterinarians can be a resource for help, (no diss on vets, but…) I think it’s important to remember that most veterinarians do not get much (if any) training in cat behavior. In many veterinary programs, ONE multi-species behavior course is an elective, not a requirement (see here, here and here for examples of veterinary curricula). Many veterinarians admit they know little about behavior, while others may give outdated or just bad behavior advice!
That said, veterinarians are hopefully making progress on this end, and hopefully know of some resources for cat-owners that they can at least point them to (such as veterinary behaviorists, CAABS, the IAABC and Cats International) if they can’t answer a client's behavior-related questions! Because behavior issues are a major reason that cats are surrendered to shelters, it is important to intervene and provide assistance early!
This study reveals some valuable information about pet owners and the type of activities they provide for their cats and I have plenty of thoughts about the findings! This study found owners reporting even less playtime with cats than data from a study in 1997, where owners reported 20-40 minutes of daily play with their cats. Sadly, the current figure is probably not enough to meet most cats’ needs.
Food puzzles are a great way to provide enrichment for your cat!
Furthermore, people need to expand their selection of toys and activities. In the current study, only 39% of owners reported using an interactive (“fishing pole”) toy with their cats. This is a travesty! Only NINE percent had a cat tree, four percent trained their cats to do tricks, and less than one percent provided food puzzles as enrichment for their cats. I’d say those are four “magic bullet” things that all cats owners can do to immediately improve their cats’ lives, and sadly, not many people are doing any of them.
Does your cat have a cat tree? Picture by David Kowis via Creative Commons/Flickr
So for those of you who might be cringing about the kitty care you are providing right now, I’m going to give you a few quick tips to make playtime easier for you and your cat:
Think like prey – get interactive (that means a toy with a stick that you move, not a toy you just toss across the room) toys that resemble birds, bugs and mice. Move them like birds, bugs and mice! Quiver, skitter, hop, but whatever you do, don’t shove the toy in your cat’s face. No self-respecting mouse would do that. Also, don’t feel the need to wildly wave the toy around constantly. This might work for kittens, but older cats need more calculated play…bringing me to my next tip:
Take advantage of your cat’s stalk and rush hunting style. Stalk and rush means that the predator spends a lot of time carefully watching prey before making a very hasty and deadly attack. Cats really like the “pre-pounce” phase – where the toy is barely moving for many seconds. Watch their eyes – are their pupils dilated? Is their butt wiggling? Are their whiskers forward? If yes, you have feline focus!
This short burst style of hunting means that you don’t always need 20 minute play sessions with your cat. Several 5-10 minute sessions are likely just as effective! Just make sure your cat has a little time to calm down from the play before taking the toy away.
Use all of their senses! We are visual, so we tend to think that cats are too. But they want to use their senses of smell, sound and touch too! Try toys scented with catnip, or small amounts of mint, valerian or even cat food. Remember their sense of smell is much stronger than ours, so a little bit will go far. The scent may help them track toys as you move them around.
Move toys against a scratchy surface, like under a paper bag or rug, or hide the toy behind a table leg and gently tap the toy against the leg. The sound will immediately pique your cat’s interest!
Be sure to let the cat catch and touch the toy frequently. They have many sensitive nerve endings and whiskers in their face and paws to help them hunt. These are designed to help them capture prey. This why lazer pointer play can get frustrating; they can never catch the toy.
Cats can get bored of the same toys. Photo via Wikimedia Commons
Rotate toys – a previous study suggested that cats don’t get bored of play – they get bored of the same old toy. So be sure to take some toys away, and put out different ones. Have multiple interactive toys for play sessions. Switch toys if your cat seems to lose interest and see if she is re-engaged!
I hope now you feel a little more inclined to pick up that dusty cat dancer that’s been sitting in the back of your closet and give your kitty a little exercise! You may even have fun and create a bonding moment with your cat…and if you’re lucky, you’ll prevent some behavior problems too!
There's an exciting conference happening RIGHT NOW in the UK, the Canine Science Forum (which for the first time, this year, had a Feline Science Forum). Mia Cobb and Julie Hecht (of Do You Believe in Dog & DogSpies fame) are reporting live and storifying their tweets for our reading pleasure!
Squirrels contributed to two power outages in Portland, OR in one week, and PG&E crews there are considering "wildlife guards" to prevent squirrels from entering substations, since 18% of power outages there can be blamed on animals. One of these power outages was blamed for two car accidents. Squirrels were also later falsely accused of a power outage in nearby Clackamas County, but it turned out to be an equipment failure.
In Nebraska City, a squirrel "put his feet where they shouldn't have been," leaving residents without power for an hour. One squirrel caused inconveniences for over 4000 people in Indiana, and a squirrel in Springfield, IL made contact with the power equipment "in the wrong way" (I think that is a euphemism for the squirrel's passing). Grand Rapids, MI also experienced a squirrel-related loss of power.
And finally, in Leatherland (somewhere in the UK), a squirrel started a fire after he "fried his brains out," and the short circuit triggered a fire in leaves nearby.
In case you are wondering, it's not squirrels' running on single power lines that causes the problems; it's almost always contact with two lines at the same time (even a paw on one, and a touch of the tail to the other) that causes the outages. A nice description of the problem here.
Schadenfreude isn't just for adults anymore. Young children expressed joy at the bad fortune of others, bad fortune being defined as when water was spilled on the book that their mother was reading to a playmate .
Whiskers in other mammals might serve a purpose similar to our hands and fingers - rats were shown using their whiskers to navigate and avoid obstacles, depending on the novelty and complexity of the environment. Read about the study here.
One of my cats has been pretty ill for a few weeks now. She had a vomiting episode, and then just pretty much stopped eating. She's always had what I would call a "sensitive tummy" but has otherwise been pretty healthy. So I was convinced that she was a likely victim of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and that it had finally caught up to her.
When she stopped eating, we took her to the vet immediately, where she was given an anti-nausea medication and some fluids. We scheduled a "GI Panel" - a special blood test that looks at the functions of the pancreas and tests vitamin levels to look at overall digestive functioning. Abnormal results can often be an indicator of IBD or other health problems that might lead to loss of appetite such as B-12 deficiency or pancreatitis. Her bloodwork came back "boringly normal" but the symptoms remained. It got to the point that all she would it was small amounts of chicken baby food. The vet recommended an ultrasound to look for other signs of inflammation of the intestines, which we scheduled as soon as we could.
Guide dogs may be good at their jobs, but maybe they don't exactly know why they are doing them? Dogs are very sensitive to human gaze, and will look at their owners to help them solve a problem, or when they want food. Turns out that guide dogs for the blind still look to their human's eyes when they want a snack.
I love the idea of public contributions to scientific data collection! Recent publications that utilized citizen science include observations of gulls, foxes, geese, lady beetles and beach garbage. Read more about it here!
Turns out that plants are sensitive to noise - but not all noises are treated equally. They are particularly sensitive to the chomping sounds of caterpillars.
DogSpies, one of my favorite blogs, had a busy week! Finding a roaming, unneutered cat, reporting back on the canine science conference and updating us on recent dog-related readings!