International Cat Day: Five feline facts
Created in 2002 by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, International Cat Day takes place on 8 August every year.
For centuries, the domestic cat has carried a reputation for solitude. It does not fetch. It does not perform on command. It appears, by most human accounts, to tolerate rather than need us.
From facial muscles to purring frequencies, scientists are finding that cats are far more socially and physiologically complex than the "aloof loner" stereotype allows.
Created in 2002 by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, International Cat Day takes place on 8 August every year.
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To celebrate this day, here are five findings that are reshaping how biologists and veterinarians think about Felis catus:
Cats form their own version of a pride
Feral cat colonies do not behave the way most wild cat species do.
Within these groups, cats groom one another, play together and will even nurse each other's kittens, behaviour more commonly associated with lion prides than with a species long assumed to be territorial and solitary.
Their faces say more than anyone realised
Scientists Lauren Scott and Brittany Florkiewicz filmed 53 cats over nearly a year and applied a facial muscle-coding system originally built for studying primates.
The result: cats produce 276 distinct facial expressions using just 26 individual facial movements, from a parted lip to a squinted eye.
Most of those expressions fell cleanly into friendly or unfriendly categories.
Florkiewicz, who has also studied facial signalling in chimpanzees, said she was struck by how wide the feline repertoire turned out to be, comparable in richness to the roughly 300 expressions she has documented in apes.
She said the finding raises new questions about how domestication itself may have shaped the way cats communicate, both with each other and, potentially, with the species that took them in.
Cats cannot taste sugar at all
Unlike humans or dogs, cats lack the receptors needed to detect sweetness.
As obligate carnivores, their taste buds are built around detecting protein and fat rather than sugar, which means a slice of cake holds no appeal to them whatsoever. The tuna sandwich, however, is a different story entirely.
Cats can tell when you are speaking to them
Studies have confirmed that cats can distinguish their own names from other words and sounds.
Whether they respond is a separate matter, one that appears to depend heavily on mood and motivation rather than comprehension.
In short: they hear you. Listening is optional.
A purr may do more than communicate contentment
A cat's purr vibrates at a frequency of roughly 25 to 150 hertz, a range that has been linked in other research to tissue and bone healing.
Some scientists believe the vibration may carry mild therapeutic effects not just for cats but for the humans who spend time around them, though this remains an active area of study rather than settled science.
There is a companion behaviour worth noting too: the slow blink.
When a cat holds your gaze and closes its eyes gradually, researchers interpret it as a signal of trust and comfort, roughly the feline equivalent of a relaxed smile.
Cat owners are often encouraged to blink slowly back.
