It is common that cats experience attachment only to the place where they live, and by no means to the one who cares for them. We decided to check if such a stereotype is true about these pets.
The stereotype of cat Independence and freedom is reflected in fairy tale Rediaard Kipling "A cat who walks on its own" and removed for her motives of Soviet cartoons. Counts, What cats, unlike dogs, Tied Not to a person, but to the house in which they live. In this regard, some Veterinarians even Recommend, leaving for a short vacation, leave The cat in the usual apartment for him and ask relatives or acquaintances to periodically visit him, and not to relocate the animal to another house, where people will always be with him. Interestingthat in scientific The environment is even Starting Disputes whether a cat can be considered a completely domesticated animal or it still retains many of the wild features, including almost no need to communicate with a person.
According to calculations The manufacturer of feed and products for animals Mars Petcare, in 2021, 63.4 million pets lived in Russia, 40.8 million of which were cats, and 22.6 million - dogs. In 2016, GFK Spent In 22 countries of the world, a survey of preferences in the choice of pets. Russia turned out to be the most coat -loving country from participating in the study: 57% of households in the country reported that they have a cat, 29% have a dog, 11% have fish, and 9% have birds. I received similar data as a VTsIOM: an analytical review issued in 2019 and entitled “Russia - Country of Cats”, ReportedThat 54% of Russian families keep at least one cat at home.
There were cats Domestic About 10,000 - 12,000 years ago when a person is moving to a settled lifestyle and with the beginning of the development of agriculture. The section of the zoology that studies the anatomy and physiology of domestic cats, called Felinology. Association of cat lovers (CFA, one of the largest felinological organizations) Selects 42 breeds of cats entitled to participate in the championships, and three more (Khao-Mani, Lika and Toy-Bob), which can soon be recognized. The International Association of Cats is wider in their views and Selects As many as 73 breeds. Moreover, many breeds that have developed externally are not yet recognized by world organizations - for example, Chinese cats tank Get Hundreds of thousands of subscribers on Instagram*, but have not yet been taken into account in the registers. In the description of each breed, felinologists indicate the predominant features of the character of a cat - for example, greater sociability or desire for independence from a person.
Scientists go beyond descriptive characteristics and study the types of cat attachment. In 2015, researchers from the British University of Lincoln Adapted Popular psychological test “Unknown situation”, developed in the middle of the 20th century by the psychologist Mary Einsworth to assess the affection of the baby to his mother. The original experiment studied the behavior of a child aged a year and a half in the game room alone, in the presence of a mother, in the presence of a mother and a stranger and only with a stranger. Three situations were left for cats: in an unfamiliar room with two chairs and alone, there with the owner and there with a stranger. The hidden camera monitored the behavior of the animal. Scientists noted that the only difference was that when the owner left the room, the cats meowed louder than when a stranger left them alone. Professor Daniel Mills, the author of the study, Commented This is: "We do not see any additional reasons to believe that the connection between the cat and the owner resembles a safe affection." According to scientists, this may be due to the fact that the cats are domesticated not so long ago as dogs. Scientists also took into account the nature of the relationship with the owner: cats usually contact the owner less in time and intensity.
The conclusions of British scientists were called into question by their American colleagues. In 2019, researchers from the University of Oregon suggestedthat people still underestimate cat attachment, believing that deep feelings are more characteristic of dogs. The authors of the experiment invited 79 people along with their pets-bots aged three to eight months. For the ideal of attachment, scientists took the connection of the mother - baby, because if the mother is in the same room with the child, he feels calmer and more confidently explores the surrounding environment. Instead of the EinSvort test, scientists used the adapted basic security test (SBT), also used in child-child psychology. At first, the owner, together with the animal, spent two minutes in a new room, then left him at the same period of time, leaving the animal alone, and again returned for another two minutes. Having studied the behavior of the tailed in each of the temporary segments, scientists came to the conclusion that most of them (64%) show a persistent affection for the owner, and 36% - ambivalent or unstable. Interestingly, the numbers almost coincided with the distribution of affection in children and dogs. So, studies of other authors showed that 65% of babies Show Persistent attachment to the parent, 35% - unstable, and in dogs indicator Strong affection is lower than in children and cats - only 58%.
Scientists did not stop on kittens, because with age the attachment could change, so they conducted a similar study on the group of adult animals. For this, cat owners were invited over a year - together with their pets, they took part in the same testing. Of the 38 adults participating in the experiment, 65.8% (that is, even a little more than among kittens) demonstrated persistent affection for a person. Dr. Christin Vital, one of the authors of the study, shares With its observations: “Attachment is biologically significant behavior. Our study shows that when cats live in a state of dependence on a person, attachment to people can be a flexible device and most cats use people as a source of comfort. ”
Not all researchers consider this methodology permissible for studying cat attachment. Dr. Carlo Syracuz from the Veterinary Medicine School of Pennsylvania University Turns Attention to this feature: “It is easy to study dogs: you can bring them to the laboratory, and they will be satisfied. But the cat is an extremely territorial being. Her behavior depends on the environment so much that if you move it to the laboratory, then what you see will not really reflect its normal behavior. ”
The possible reason why cat attachment to people is not taken seriously is the stinginess of external manifestations. “Cats are not people or dogs. People [to express attachment] hug and kiss. Dogs become extremely excited and bounce from joy. Cats do nothing of the kind. They are much more elegant. They are approaching us. They rub them with their heads. This is enough for them, then they leave " - tells About the typical manifestation of attachment in cat siracuse. The clinical veterinarian Karen Hiestand from the University of Sussex agrees with him: since domestic cats come from an African wild cat, an animal leading not a flock of life, they are not very social animals. The main way to show attachment to another representative of their species is an allogruming (this is how the process is called in a reason when animals lick each other).
At the same time, indirect data on animal behavior still indicate that a person is extremely important for cats. Japanese scientists decided Check whether the owner’s voice remembers the cats. For this, 50 animals were tested in two rooms: at home and in a cafe. The cat’s name sounded from the speakers located in different parts of the room and even beyond, and it was pronounced by either the owner of the animal or a person of the same gender, an unfamiliar to a pet. Cats unequivocally distinguished their usual voice and reacted minimally to a stranger. Dr. Saho Takagi, one of the co -authors of the study, sure: “These results indicate that cats are very worried about their owners, closely monitor their every action, thinking about what will happen next.”
Thus, most of the scientific experiments shows that cats have a high level of attachment to their owners - animals demonstrate this feeling as often as babies, and even a little more often than dogs. At the same time, many experiments were conducted in an unfamiliar environment for cats, which could affect animal behavior. It is also important to understand: the methods of expressing attachment in cats are different from those that are familiar to dogs or people when communicating with each other. Cats are attached to the owners in their own way, although not so often they run out of meeting them or show other signs of location. Therefore, “a cat that walks on its own” is rather a delusion that does not take into account the psychology of these pets.
*Russian authorities They think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social network Instagram, an extremist organization, its activities in Russia are prohibited.
Image on the cover: Amiel
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