6 November 2024

How small a hole can a cat squeeze through? CatPusic tested his cat.

Science:

This hole was a circle, same size all around, but a recent study in Budapest — Cats are (almost) liquid!—Cats selectively rely on body size awareness when negotiating short openings — demonstrated that cats hesitate more when the opening is short than when it is narrow.

Narrow openings don’t bother cats because their free-floating collarbones are attached to muscle, allowing them to flatten vertically.

Short openings are a problem though. Young cats make mistakes.

Cats: We’d had them less than an hour when Sid went in a hole and couldn’t get out – had to break the grill off to let him out. — caption on the photo below by cormac70

As cats gain body size awareness they become better at judging short openings.

Though this video is not the iScience experiment, it is very similar.

Listen to a podcast about this study at Science Magazine. (Note: there is a 1 minute promo before the broadcast begins.)