That cats are very special animals is nothing new. Mysterious, they have fascinated man for at least 10 thousand years. So much so that even those who live in our homes seem to belong to a sort of parallel world from which, from time to time, they return to grant us their company. Yet, the most widespread feline on the planet is not at all as unsociable as we tend to think. Far from it. Incredible as it may seem, in fact, cats also communicate through 276 facial expressions which derive from the combination of 26 unique facial movements.
INSIGHTS
I study
An absolutely impressive number especially when compared to those of humans and dogs which, in comparison and respectively, have 44 unique facial movements, the former, only 27 the latter.
Two researchers from the University of California counted the cats’ expressions thanks to the analysis of videos recorded in a CatCafe. In this type of venue, as is known, customers have the opportunity to interact with the numerous cats that, present in the structure, color quick lunches and aperitifs, attracting hundreds of enthusiasts and simply curious people.
The study, born from the singular idea of a medical student, Lauren Scott, who filmed the facial expressions adopted by cats towards their peers during closing hours, for an entire academic year, was finally published in the prestigious journal Behavioral Processes . 194 minutes of video recordings which, examined by the researcher, thanks to the collaboration with the psychologist Brittany Florkiewicz, were fundamental in attempting to codify the movements of the cats’ facial muscles. By excluding those necessary or in any case linked to breathing and chewing, just to give two examples, we have reached the astonishing result which, in fact, has suddenly canceled what has been hypothesized so far, raising it to the point of almost touching the 357 facial expressions that belong to the social animal par excellence: the chimpanzee.
The bills
How were they counted? Each of the expressions, the study explains, combines four of the 26 unique facial movements of which cats are capable. Among them, parted lips, dilated or not dilated pupils, the positions of the ears, jaw, blinking or licking the nose. What are the resulting expressions? These are also indicated in the study. So it turns out that, in the vast majority, 45% of cases, they were friendly. In 37% aggressive and only in 18% of cases we found ourselves faced with unclear, in any case ambiguous, expressions. Among those whose meaning was clear from the first images, the tendency to move ears and mustaches towards a similar other in the case of friendly interactions. On the contrary, by pushing them away, it demonstrates hostility.
2023-10-27 17:44:54
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