Last year members of our 4-H club designed simple mazes and let our pet mice try them out. Because of that past experience, we were totally in awe and inspired when we saw this mouse in action.
I have two comments. First, this is a special mouse. We found each of our mice had distinct personalities. For example, our present mouse, Squiggle, would be way too shy to do this. We did have a mouse named Spot, however, who would have loved to have this sort of stimulation.
Second, note the black dots about the course. I suspect the mouse has left droppings because it has run the course before. Mice have a keen sense of smell, and by leaving the droppings it was probably able to get cues from them. I know wild mice have been shown to create piles of debris to act as trail markers.
Check our post on pet mice for more information about activities you can do with a pet mouse.
Thanks to our friends, the Millers, for pointing out this amazing mouse video!
For those of you who have doing the cat science projects, try adding coffee to the smells experiment. I accidentally dropped a few coffee beans of the floor yesterday and my cat went wild for them. See how your cat reacts to coffee and tea and let me know. By the way, chocolate can make dogs and cats very sick, so avoid letting your animals eat any.
Have you ever wondered what your cat was saying when it makes various sounds? Ask your children what sounds they think a cat makes. Spend some time producing cat sounds like meows, murps, purrs and yowls. One of our cats had a sound we called “yhine,” a whining meow made while he was yawning.
Spend some time listening to your cat. You might want to tape him or her, if you have a tape recorder with a microphone. Relate which sounds he makes with activities or locations, to see if there are any patterns. For example, does he always make one sound in the kitchen? Could he be asking for food?
If you don’t have cats (or even if you do), listen to the cats in the video below and decide what you think they are saying.
My interpretation, based on many years of association with cats:
The first gray cat is making a cat/human vocalization, that is he or she is trying to communicate to a human. He is definitely asking to go out. I think there may be a door there to the right side.
The second cat in the first video is looking out the window at birds. Cats often make that sound when hunting, usually when the prey is out of reach. Some people have suggested that the cats are trying to call the birds in, which would be a cat/bird vocalization. Birds are curious when it comes to unusual sounds, as most birders know. Birders often make soft “pishing” noises to entice a bird to come closer.
As for the cat’s “cheh cheh” sounds, I have wondered whether the sound is to alert other cats in the area to potential prey. Cats are solitary hunters, but you never know. In that case, it would be a cat/cat vocalization. Or perhaps the cat is trying to get the human to help, in which case it would be a cat/human vocalization.
The cats in the second video are more difficult. They are communicating to one another, so it is a cat/cat vocalization. But what are they saying? Maybe one wants to stay up and play and the other wants to take a nap?
By the way, a scientist recently recorded cat sounds under various conditions and then asked volunteers to interpret the sounds. (There wasn’t a video to add visual cues). It turns out people who owned cats correctly figured out what the sounds meant about 40% of the time, and people who didn’t own cats didn’t have much luck. It isn’t as easy as you would think.
Individual cats vary considerably in the sounds they make, based both on their genetics (breed) and learning environment. Cats can also make sounds we can’t hear, called ultrasonic sounds. When a cat opens its mouth, but doesn’t make a sound, it may be producing an ultrasonic call.
For older children interested in sound, take a look at this website of math and science activities with sound. Towards the bottom is a detailed look at the differences of infrasound and ultrasound.
For younger children, the Childfun website has a page of cat-related activities.
Next week we will move on to some fun science activities with pet guinea pigs. And now my cat wants me to feed her…
If you’d like to learn more about cats, here are a few books with information.
How to Talk to Your Cat
by Claire Bessant
The Cat Whisperer: The Secret of How to Talk to Your Cat
by Claire Bessant
The Secret Life of Cats: Everything You Cat Would Want You to Know
by Claire Bessant
The Complete Guide to Understanding & Caring for Your Cat
by Carole C. Wilbourn
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting and Owning a Cat
by Sheila Webster Boneham
