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.
Tag: cat science (Page 1 of 2)
Have you ever wondered what your cat was saying when it makes various sounds? Let’s take a look at cats communicating and then do some simple activities to learn more.
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.
The first gray cat is making a cat-to-human vocalization, that is he or she is trying to communicate to a human. He is definitely asking to go out. There may be a door there to the right side.
The second cat 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-to-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.
The cats in the second video are more difficult to interpret. They are communicating to one another, so it is a cat-to-cat vocalization. But what are they saying? Maybe one wants to stay up and play, while 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 to figure out what cats are saying.
Individual cats vary considerably in the sounds they make, based both on their genetics (breed) and learning environment. One of our cats had a sound we called “yhine,†a whining meow made while he was yawning. 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.
Activity 1. Talk like a cat (younger scientists)
Ask your children what sounds they think a cat makes. Have them discuss and try to imitate cat sounds like meows, murps, purrs and yowls. Carry on conversations using only cat sounds.
Activity 2. Study cat communication behavior
Spend some time listening to your cat. You might want to record or videotape your cat(s) communicating throughout the day. Relate which sounds your cat 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? Does she make another sound when she sees a bird outside the window?
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.
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 (contains affiliate links to Amazon).
How to Talk to Your Cat
How to Speak Cat: A Guide to Decoding Cat Language
Did anyone try the smells science experiment with your cat last week? Did your cat have any preferences? How did it react to the catnip?
My cat was not crazy about the white sheet of paper I was using as a mat. Eventually I had to dampen the tips of my fingers, dip them in the spice or herb, and then present the finger to the cat. She got excited about cinnamon, and pretty much ignored the rest. I didn’t have any catnip to offer her, but in the past she has rolled in it, eaten some, and then she gets kind of wacky. She’s definitely in the 70% of cats that react.
I wanted to write up a science experiment about cat sound communication, but I found a couple of other websites to share, so I think I’ll hold that until next weekend.
The first website is from Germany. Instead of a person taking pictures of a cat, this website shows pictures taken by Fritz the cat while he is wearing a webcam around his neck. Some of the pictures are what you would expect, the underside of a car and someone’s feet. I was totally blown away by how much the cat was apparently looking at the sky and the trees. I guess I never realized a creature so close to the ground would be interested in the sky. Take a look at Fritz’s “Cam-Galerie†and see what life looks like from a cat’s eye view.
The Curious Cat Science and Engineering blog has a brief, but interesting post on blinking in cats. You might want to take a look around this site, because there are regular Friday posts called “Friday Cat Fun.â€
Finally, here is an easy experiment to find out whether your cat is right or left pawed at the Scholastic Science World website. To tell you the truth, I hadn’t thought much about it. I’ll have to go ask my cat. Let me know what you find out from your cat, too.
For more information, see Roberta Gibson Writes.