What Is Your Cat’s Hunting Technique?
Cats, like all felines, are excellent hunters. All owners are probably amazed at their kittens’ ability to chase their prey. But you, like many others, may not know your cat’s hunting technique.
Why do cats keep hunting?
Although they have learned to live harmoniously with humans, cats have not been fully domesticated. In fact, there are those who defend that cats have domesticated themselves; that is, they have allowed themselves to adapt to a domestic routine to benefit in different ways.
Discussions and controversies aside, the truth is that our kittens still have certain habits and behaviors worthy of a wild cat. One of the greatest demonstrations of this is his powerful hunting instinct.
Although they live in a very comfortable home, almost all cats continue to chase their prey and perform their hunting skills. This is an innate need of cats that dates back to their origins and their wild ancestors.
How do cats hunt in the wild?
In nature we can observe that animals perform different hunting methods to catch their prey and feed. The felines stand out as excellent strategists; they plan each step until reaching their prey to optimize their energy expenditure and ensure an effective attack.
Although some cats can hunt in groups (such as lions), most maintain a solitary life, and that is that they are only to mate, while they hunt on their own.
Learn about your cat’s incredible hunting technique
Despite their small size compared to wild cats, cats also possess the physical and mental attributes of a great hunter. Their body provides them with all the tools: well-developed muscles, great flexibility, keen senses, powerful claws, and a strong jaw.
If we stop to observe our kittens, we will see how they will be attentive to every movement of a possible prey, be it an insect or a pigeon that they see through the window. His concentration is so great and his senses so powerful that, at times, it can seem that our cat is looking at nothing.
But in reality, it’s all a crucial part of your cat’s hunting technique: devising a strategy to hunt down its prey. Then, considering that the appropriate moment has come to launch the attack, we will observe how the cat acts safely, while using its strength and flexibility to reach its prey.
Your cat’s surprising ‘surprise weapon’ to hunt
Recent studies by the AN Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution in Moscow, Russia, have revealed that cats also use a ‘secret weapon’ to increase the effectiveness of their hunt. And this powerful ‘weapon’ is found, neither more nor less, than in your urine.
Generally, a mouse that smells like cat urine tends to run away immediately. This happens because rodents have neurons that are sensitive to substances present in cat urine, especially felinine.
Quickly, the rodent’s nervous system responds to this stimulus, causing an increase in the levels of the so-called ‘stress hormone’. Thanks to this, the animal can react and escape to avoid an encounter with a predator.
Mice that have been exposed to cat urine from an early age have been found to be less likely to avoid or escape its scent as adults. That is, their response is much more peaceful than that of mice that have not been exposed to these substances.
Based on these physiological characteristics, the cat’s urine could act as a ‘secret weapon’, increasing the cat’s advantage over the mouse in a chase.
Does your cat bring you dead animals?
Many pet lovers have been surprised by some ‘gift’ brought by their cats. This peculiar habit of cats to bring dead animals to their owners is connected to their behavior in a family or a feline group.
Adult cats, especially female cats, must guide their young so that they begin to learn to hunt on their own. Until they are ready to reach their own prey, it is the adults who are responsible for bringing them food and keeping them well nourished to survive.
Our kittens quickly realize that humans are not exactly good hunters and would be in serious trouble if we had to reach our own prey. Therefore, as a demonstration of affection or care, they offer us their prey so that we stay healthy and well fed.
