Is it true that if a cat managed to squeeze its head somewhere, then the rest of its body will fit there too?

It is widely believed that cats have a unique property: if the head fits into a hole, then the animal will be able to group itself so that the whole body can fit through. We decided to check whether this belief is supported by scientific facts.

Information oh so unique capabilities cats most often you can meet on specialized resources about these animals. Answer on question, with what tied up like this peculiarity, users looking for on various forums And websites. Usually amazing cat flexibility veterinary doctors, Media And users social networks explain the fact that cats No collarbone. IN communications With incredible plasticity these animals Can even meet messages, as if scientists supposedly recognized, What cats - this is on himself in fact liquid.

The scientific work that numerous media outlets write about actually exists. Physicist Marc-Antoine Fardin from the Ecole Supérieure de Lyon published in 2014 article "On the rheology of cats." Rheology is a branch of physics that studies the deformation properties and fluidity of matter. The scientist was interested in the ability of cats to completely fill any shape with their body, from which he did a comic conclusion that these animals may actually be not in a solid, but in a liquid state of aggregation. And although from an everyday point of view such a statement looks more like a funny aphorism, for physicists it is more serious. In an article for The Conversation Farden explains, that, for example, a glacier for rheology is also a liquid body, although from school program, we know that ice is water in a solid state of aggregation. The fact is that from the point of view of this branch of physics, the state of aggregation of a substance is not a fixed property, but a characteristic that depends on the ability to change its shape over time. To designate the so-called relaxation time, scientists use Deborah's number. So, in cats this parameter is really low, which is typical for highly fluid substances. In 2017 Farden received for yours observation Ig Nobel Prize in Physics - this award hand over for “scientific works that first make you laugh and then think.” However, Farden did not study the ability of cats to crawl into narrow holes at all.

There is some evidence to suggest that cats are more flexible than other mammals. However, the point is not at all in the missing collarbones, which in cats, contrary to numerous publications on the Internet, There is. But unlike the human collarbone, the cat's rudimentary, that is, it is in an underdeveloped state.

Cats' collarbones are much less compared to the rest of the bones of the shoulder girdle. In addition, they are attached to the rest of the skeleton not by bone joints, but by muscles, which provides the animal with really good mobility and the ability to unfold the shoulder girdle, crawling into narrow places. 

And while this anatomy does promote flexibility, such a skeletal structure does not guarantee that a cat will be able to fit through any hole through which its head fits. Internet users, having heard about the incredible ability of cats, conduct their own experiments and record them on video. For example, a video with cats named Maru and Hana received 2.7 million views on YouTube. Up to a certain limit, the larger Maru fits through increasingly narrower gaps, but at the 7 cm mark she realizes that she can stick her head through the gap (and does this twice), but her body will not fit through the too narrow hole.

In fact defining The factor in the question of whether a cat will fit through the hole or not is the ability to squeeze through the gap not the head, but the shoulder girdle. And although in the diagram above it does not look much larger than the skull, it is worth considering the overall mass of the cat. Dr. Marty Becker, veterinarian and co-host of ABC's Good Morning America, explains: “The world is full of well-fed cats; for plump animals, crawling through a small hole can be difficult. Such cats can easily get stuck. A cat's whiskers are the same size in width as the cat's body, and they help the animal determine the appropriate diameter. However, when a cat gains weight (and, accordingly, becomes wider - Ed.), they do not grow in proportion to its body, which can put an overweight pet in a very difficult situation.” The same is true for pregnant animals.

Uri Burstyn, a veterinarian from Vancouver, gives Another explanation for cats' unique abilities: “They have on average twice as much skin as they actually need to cover their body. When we look at a cat, we think we see a cat, but in fact we see its skin, and the real cat is somewhere inside.” However, he also agrees that not every cat can squeeze through a hole just the size of its head; some still need a larger diameter. 

According to statistics, 63% of domestic cats have overweight or even obese. Moreover, animal owners tend to underestimate this problem: in 2018, Swedish scientists studied data on more than 2,500 cats and compared how often their weight was considered overweight by doctors and owners. It found that only 22% of pet owners thought their pet had a weight problem, while veterinarians estimated that 45% of cats were overweight. That is, the owners do not quite adequately draw the line between where their pet is simply well-fed and where it is already experiencing problems with excess weight. 

Thus, the statement that a cat will fit through any gap where its head fits is true only for slender animals. The extra pounds, experts say, will likely result in the animal needing a larger hole or simply getting stuck where its head successfully passed. Moreover, it is completely wrong to explain the increased flexibility of these mammals by their lack of collarbones. Reduced and attached only by muscle tissue to the shoulder girdle, cats still have these bones.

Cover image: Pickpic

Half-truth

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