Catwatching

by Desmond Morris

  Finally, the vigorous tugging at the fur which is so typical of a cat's self-grooming actions plays a special role in stimulating the skin glands at the base of the individual hairs. The secretions of these glands are vital to keep the fur waterproofed, and the tugging of the cat's busy tongue steps up the waterproofing as a protection against the rain.

  So grooming is much more than mere cleaning. When it licks its fur a cat is protecting itself, not only from dirt and disease, but also from exposure to cold, from overheating, from vitamin deficiency, from social tension, from foreign odours and from getting drenched to the skin. No wonder it devotes so much of its waking day to this piece of behaviour.

  There is one danger inherent in this activity. Moulting cats and cats with very long fur quickly accumulate a large number of hairs inside their alimentary tracts and these form into hairballs which can cause obstructions. Usually hairballs are vomited up naturally without causing any trouble, but if they grow too large they may become a serious hazard. Cats of a nervous disposition, which do a great deal of displacement grooming, also suffer in this way. To solve their problem it is necessary to find out what is causing their agitation and deal with it. For the moulting and long-haired cats the only prevention is regular grooming by the cat's owner with brush and comb, to remove the excess fur.

  Self-grooming begins when the kitten is about three weeks old, but it has its fur attended to by the mother from the moment of its birth.

  Being groomed by another cat is called allogrooming, in contrast with self-grooming which is known technically as autogrooming. Allogrooming is common not only between mother and kitten, but also between adult cats that have grown up together and have developed a close social bond.

  Its primary function is not mutual hygiene, but rather a cementing of the friendly relation that exists between the two animals. All the same, licking in a region that is hard for the cat itself to reach does have a special appeal, and cats are partial to attention behind the ears. This is why tickling and rubbing behind the ears is such a popular form of contact between cat-owners and their cats.

  The autogrooming actions often follow a set sequence, when a cat is indulging in a complete 'wash-and-brush-up'. The typical routine goes as follows: 1 Lick the lips. 2 Lick the side of one paw until it is wet. 3 Rub the wet paw over the head, including ear, eye, cheek and chin. 4 Wet the other paw in the same way. 5 Rub the wet paw over that side of the head. 6 Lick front legs and shoulders. 7 Lick flanks. 8 Lick genitals. 9 Lick hind legs. 10 Lick tail from base to tip.

  If at any stage during this process an obstruction is encountered – a tangled bit of fur, for example – the licking is momentarily abandoned in favour of a localized nibble with the teeth. Then, when all is clear, the grooming sequence is resumed. Foot and claw nibbling are particularly common, removing dirt and improving the condition of the claws. This complicated cleaning sequence differs from that seen in many other mammals. Rats and mice, for example, use the whole of their front paws for grooming their heads, whereas the cat uses only the side of the paw and part of the forearm. Also, rodents sit up on their back legs and groom with both front feet at the same time, while the feline technique is to employ each front leg alternately, resting its body on the one not in use. Human observers rarely comment on such differences, remarking simply that an animal is busy cleaning itself.

  In reality, closer observation reveals that each species follows a characteristic and complex sequence of actions.

  Why does a cat wag its tail?

  Most people imagine that if a cat wags its tail it must be angry, but this is only a partial truth. The real answer is that the cat is in a state of conflict. It wants to do two things at once, but each impulse blocks the other. For example, if a cat cries to be let out at night and the door is opened to reveal a downpour of heavy rain, the animal's tail may start to wag. If it rushes out into the night and stands there defiantly for a moment, getting drenched, its tail wags even more furiously. Then it makes a decision and either rushes back in to the comforting shelter of the house, or bravely sets off to patrol its territory, despite the weather conditions. As soon as it has resolved its conflict, one way or the other, its tail immediately stops wagging.

  In such a case it is inappropriate to describe the mood as one of anger.

  Anger implies a frustrated urge to attack, but the cat in the rainstorm is not aggressive. What is being frustrated there is the urge to explore, which in turn is frustrating the powerful feline desire to keep snug and dry. When the two urges momentarily balance one another, the cat can obey neither. Pulled in two different directions at once, it stands still and wags its tail. Any two opposing urges would produce the same reaction, and only when one of these was the urge to attack frustrated by fear or some other competing mood – could we say that the cat was wagging its tail because it was angry.

  If tail-wagging in cats represents a state of acute conflict, how did such a movement originate? To understand this, watch a cat trying to balance on a narrow ledge. If it feels itself tipping over, its tail quickly swings sideways, acting as a balancing organ. If you hold a cat on your lap and then tip it slightly to the left and then to the right, alternating these movements, you can see its tail swinging rhythmically from side to side as if it is wagging it in slow motion.

  This is how the tail-wagging movement used in mood-conflicts began. As the two competing urges pulled the cat in opposite directions, the tail responded as if the animal's body were being tipped over first one way and then the other. During evolution this lashing of the tail from side to side became a useful signal in the body language of cats and was greatly speeded up in a way that made it more conspicuous and instantly recognizable. Today it is so much faster and more rhythmic than any ordinary balancing movement of the tail that it is easy to tell at a glance that the connflict the animal is experiencing is emotional rather than purely physical.

  Why does a tomcat spray urine on the garden wall?

  Tom-cats mark their territories by squirting a powerful jet of urine backwards on to vertical features of their environment. They aim at walls, bushes, tree-stumps, fence-posts or any landmark of a permanent kind. They are particularly attracted to places where they or other cats have sprayed in the past, adding their new odour to the traces of the old ones already clinging there.

  The urine of tomcats is notoriously strongly scented, so much so that even the inefficient human nostrils can detect it all too clearly. To the human nose it has a particularly unpleasant stench and many people are driven to having toms neutered in attempts to damp down this activity. Other cat odours are almost undetectable by humans. The glands on the head, for example, which are rubbed against objects to deposit another form of feline scent-mark, produce an odour that is of great significance to cats but goes completely unnoticed by the animals' human owners.

  Some authorities have claimed that the squirted urine acts as a threat signal to rival cats. Hard evidence is lacking, however, and many hours of patient field-observation have never revealed any reactions to support this view. If the odour left on the landmarks was truly threatening to other cats, it should intimidate them when they sniff it.

  They should recoil in fear and panic and slink away. Their response is just the opposite. Instead of withdrawing, they are positively attracted to the scent-marks and sniff at them with great interest.

  If they are not threatening, what do the territorial scent-marks signify? What signals do they carry? The answer is that they function rather as newspapers do for us. Each morning we read our papers and keep up to date with what is going on in the human world. Cats wander around their territories and, by sniffing at the scent-marks, can learn all the news about the comings and goings of the feline population.

  They can check how long it has been since their own last visit (by the degree of weakening of their own last scent-spray) and they can read the odoursigns of who else has passed by and sprayed, and how long ago.

  Each spray also carries with it con
siderable information about the emotional state and the individual identity of the sprayer. When a cat decides to have another spray itself, it is the feline equivalent of writing a letter to The Times, publishing a poem, and leaving a calling card, all rolled into one jet of urine.

  It might be argued that the concept of scent-signalling is far-fetched and that urine-spraying by cats is simply their method of getting rid of waste products from the body and that it has no other significance whatsoever. If a cat has a full bladder it will spray; if it has an empty bladder it will not spray. The facts contradict this. Careful observation shows that cats perform regular spraying actions in a set routine, regardless of the state of their bladder. If it happens to be full, then each squirt is large. If it is nearly empty, then the urine is rationed out. The number of squirts and the territorial areas which are scent-marked remain the same, no matter how much or how little liquid the cat has drunk. Indeed, if the cat has completely run out of urine, it can be seen continuing its scent-marking routine, laboriously visiting each scent-post, turning its back on it, straining and quivering its tail, and then walking away. The act of spraying has its own separate motivation, which is a clear indication of its importance in feline social life.

  Although it is not generally realized, females and neutered cats of both sexes do spray jets of urine, like tom-cats. The difference is that their actions are less frequent and their scent far less pungent, so that we barely notice it.

  How large is a cat's territory?

  The wild counterpart of the domestic cat has a huge territory, with males patrolling up to 175 acres. Domestic cats which have gone wild and are living in remote areas where there is unlimited space also cover impressively large areas. Typical farm cats use nearly as much space, the males ranging over 150 acres. Female farm cats are more modest, using only about fifteen acres on average. In cities, towns and suburbs, the cat population becomes almost as overcrowded as that of the human citizens. The territories of urban cats shrink to a mere fraction of the home range enjoyed by their country cousins. It has been estimated that cats living rough in London, for example, enjoy only about one-fifth of an acre each. Pampered pet cats living in their owners' houses may be even more restricted, depending on the size of the gardens attached to the houses. The maximum density recorded is one pet cat per one-fiftieth of an acre.

  This degree of variation in the size of feline territories shows just how flexible the cat can be. Like people, it can adjust to a massive shrinkage of its home ground without undue suffering. From the above figures it is easy to calculate that 8,750 crowded pet cats could be fitted into the territory of one wild cat living in a remote part of the world. The fact that the social life of the crowded cats does not become chaotic and vicious is a testimony to the social tolerance of cats. In a way this is surprising, because people often speak of the sociability of dogs, but stress that cats are much more solitary and unsociable. They may be so by choice, but given the challenge of living whisker-by-tail with other cats, they manage remarkably well.

  They achieve this high-density success in a number of ways. The most important factor is the provision of food by their owners. This removes the need for lengthy daily hunting trips. It may not remove the urge to set off on such trips – a well-fed cat remains a hunting cat – but it does reduce the determination born of an empty stomach.

  If they find themselves invading neighbouring territories, they can give up the hunt without starving. If restricting their hunting activities to their own cramped home ranges makes them inefficient prey-catchers, it might prove frustrating, but it does not lead to starvation and death. It has been demonstrated that the more food the cats are given by their owners, the smaller their urban territories become.

  Another factor helping them is the way in which their human owners divide up their own territories – with fences and hedges and walls to demarcate their gardens. These provide natural boundary-lines that are easy to recognize and defend. In addition there is a permissible degree of overlapping in feline territories. Female cats often have special areas where several of their home ranges overlap and where they can meet on neutral ground. The males – whose territories are always about ten times the size of those of the females, regardless of how great or small the crowding – show much more overlap. Each male will roam about on an area that takes in several female territories, enabling him to keep a permanent check on which particular queen (female) is on heat at any particular moment.

  The overlapping is permitted because the cats are usually able to avoid one another as they patrol the landmarks in their patch of land. If, by accident, two of them do happen to meet up unexpectedly, they may threaten one another or simply keep out of one another's way, watching each other's movements and waiting their turn to visit a particular zone of the territory.

  The numbers of pet cats are, of course, controlled by their owners, with the neutering of adults, destruction of unwanted litters and the selling or giving away of surplus kittens. But how does the territorial arrangement of feral cats survive the inevitable production of offspring? One detailed study of dockland cats at a large port revealed that in an area of110 acres there were ninety-five cats. Each year they produced about 400 kittens between them. This is a high figure of about ten per female, which must mean that on average each queen gave birth to two litters. In theory this would mean a fivefold increase in the population each year. In practice it was found that the population remained remarkably stable from one year to the next.

  The cats had established an appropriate territory size for the feral, dockland world in which they lived, and then kept to it. Closer investigation revealed that only one in eight of the kittens survived to become adults. These fifty additions to the population each year were balanced by fifty deaths among the older cats. The main cause of death here (as with most urban cat populations) was the fatal road accident.

  How sociable are cats?

  The cat is often characterized as a solitary, selfish animal, walking alone and coming together with other cats only to fight or mate. When cats are living wild, with plenty of space, it is true that they do fit this picture reasonably well, but they are capable of changing their ways when they become more crowded. Living in cities and towns, and in the homes of their human owners, cats show a remarkable and unexpected degree of sociability. Anyone doubting this must remember that, to a pet cat, we ourselves are giant cats. The fact that domestic cats will share a home with a human family is, in itself, proof of their social flexibility. But this is only part of the story. There are many other ways in which cats demonstrate co-operation, mutual aid, and tolerance.

  This is particularly noticeable when a female is having kittens. Other females have been known to act as midwives, helping to chew through the umbilical cords and clean up the new-born offspring. Later they may offer a babysitting service, bring food for the new mother, and occasionally feed young from other litters as well as their own. Even males sometimes show a little paternal feeling, cleaning kittens and playing with them.

  These are not usual activities, but despite the fact that they are uncommon occurrences, they do reveal that the cat is capable, under special circumstances, of behaving in a less selfish way than we might expect.

  Territorial behaviour also involves some degree of restraint and sharing. Cats do their best to avoid one another, and often use the same ranges at different times as a way of reducing conflict. In addition there are special no-cat's-land areas where social 'clubs' can develop.

  These are parts of the environment where, for some reason, cats call a general truce and come together without too much fighting. This is common with feral city cats, where there may be a special feeding site.

  If humans throw food for them there, they may gather quite peacefully to share it. Close proximity is tolerated in a way that would be unthinkable in the 'home base' regions of these cats.

  Considering these facts, some authorities have gone so far as to say that cats are truly gregarious and that
their society is more cooperative than that of dogs, but this is romantic exaggeration. The truth is that, where social life is concerned, cats are opportunists.

  They can take it or leave it. Dogs, on the other hand, can never leave it. A solitary dog is a wretched creature. A solitary cat is, if anything, relieved to be left in peace.

  If this is so, then how can we explain the mutual aid examples given above? Some are due to the fact that we have turned domestic cats into overgrown kittens. By continuing to feed them and care for them we prolong their juvenile qualities into their adult lives. Like Peter Pan, they never grow up mentally, even though they become mature adults physically. Kittens are playful and friendly with their litter-mates and with their mothers, so they are used to acting together in a small group. This quality can be added to later adult activities, making them less competitive and less solitary. Secondly, those cats living wild in cities, where there is little space, adapt to their shrunken territories out of necessity, rather than by preference.

  Some animals can live only in close-knit social groups. Others can tolerate only a completely solitary existence. The cat's flexibility means that it can accept either mode of living, and it is this that has been a key factor in its long success story since it was first domesticated thousands of years ago.

  Why do cats keep crying to be let out and then cry to be let in again?