Have you ever watched a cat squeeze through a tiny gap and wondered how they do it? Cats seem to melt into any space, no matter how small. It’s like they’re made of liquid! A new study finds that there’s more to this ability than just flexibility.1
Cats have some unique qualities that help them easily slip through tight spaces, making them appear almost liquid-like. If you’ve ever been amazed by your cat’s ability to “ooze” through openings, this research helps explain why.
Cats Have Body Awareness
The recent research titled “Cats are (almost) liquid!” investigates how cats navigate tight spaces and whether they possess awareness of their body size when deciding whether to squeeze through small openings. This study, led by Péter Pongrácz, aimed to determine if cats use self-representation, similar to what has been observed in dogs.
Pongrácz, an associate professor at the Department of Ethology at Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary, previously studied dogs’ body size awareness. In 2019, he set up an experiment where dogs had to pass through a hole in a panel.
Larger openings posed no problem, but the dogs hesitated or refused to go through smaller ones, suggesting they understood they might not fit. (ref)
For his study on cats, Pongrácz brought the experiment to the cats’ homes to minimize stress. He and a team of researchers conducted experiments with 30 cats in their homes, using panels with holes of different sizes.
How Cats React to Different Openings
Pongrácz tested how cats would respond to changes in the size of openings. When the opening was large, most cats walked through without hesitation. However, when he lowered the height but kept the width wide, the cats began to hesitate.
Specifically, 22 out of 30 cats paused before trying to go through the shortest holes, while only eight hesitated at the narrowest ones.
In contrast, when he made the width smaller but left the height comfortable, most cats continued to pass through without any hesitation, no matter how narrow the opening became. This suggests that cats don’t always rely on body awareness in every situation, particularly when dealing with width. (ref)
Cats Also Have a Self-Preservation Strategy
The findings suggest that cats’ hesitation when approaching small openings may be a self-preservation instinct. They tend to pause when they can’t see what’s on the other side, likely to avoid danger. Their decision-making seems to rely on mental images of their body size, helping them assess whether they can fit through a space safely.
According to Sridhar Ravi, an aerospace engineer at the University of New South Wales, Pongrácz’s experiment is “simple yet effective.” (ref) Although Ravi wasn’t involved in the research, he performed a similar study with bumblebees, showing that even flying insects are aware of their body size. (ref)
He believes that a cat’s hesitation may vary depending on the situation, such as when chasing prey. In these cases, cats might hesitate to avoid injury during fast movements.
Cats & Dogs: Body Awareness Differences
While the experiment followed the same method as the dog study, key differences emerged due to cats’ anatomy and behavior. The narrow, tall openings didn’t cause pre-emptive hesitation in cats, suggesting they may not have the same body width awareness as dogs.
Moreover, testing the cats at home, unlike the controlled lab environment for dogs, introduced challenges such as inconsistent starting distances. This prevented accurate timing of how long it took the cats to approach the openings.
Dr. Pongrácz plans to further investigate if cats rely more on body weight awareness when moving through tight spaces.
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Davin is a jack-of-all-trades but has professional training and experience in various home and garden subjects. He leans on other experts when needed and edits and fact-checks all articles.