Does your cat often stare out the window, looking curious about the outside world?
And do you think this is the cat’s “yearning for freedom”?
However, when you open the door, you find that the cat is afraid to go outside.
It can be seen that although the cat is curious about the outside, it does not seem to be very yearning.
So why do cats who are afraid to go outside like looking out the window so much?
Visual feast
Just like you don’t have the guts to do many things, but you do have the guts to think about them, so does a cat.
For cats, appreciating the world outside the window is undoubtedly a fun visual feast.
A cat’s retina contains 125 million rods, five to six times as many as humans.
This visual construction makes its ability to capture moving objects reach the most “top effect”.
An animal cognition experiment shows that when a bird passes outside a window, the cat’s eye movement shows a precise parabolic tracking pattern, and its visual focus is always locked on the artery of the neck of the prey.
This reaction has nothing to do with hunger, it is instinctive, and even in the satiated state, the cat will still maintain a tracking success rate of more than 90% on the moving target.
In other words, most cats look out the window, in fact, is an instinctive “prey tracking” visual feast.
Information input
Cats have the most sophisticated pheromone recognition system of any mammal.
Pheromone recognition system is a complex physiological system used by organisms to perceive and process pheromone information. For example, cats can use their unique vomeronasal organ and olfactory system to recognize pheromones.
When outdoor stray cats pass through the window, they may leave odor molecules on the window frame, and these odor molecules will be adsorbed to the glass surface through van der Waals forces.
One study showed that these pheromones can “reside” on the glass surface for 17 to 23 days, forming three-dimensional “odor sand.”
When domestic cats recognize these pheromones, they are naturally interested and will show behavior by looking out of the window.
In simpler terms, domestic cats may be attracted to outdoor cats, which is why they look out the window.
Driven by curiosity
The saying “curiosity killed the cat” is not for nothing, and most cats do possess a powerful curiosity.
For domestic cats who have lived indoors for a long time, many things in the outdoors are new, and they will naturally be curious about these “new things”.
The scenery outside the window is changing all the time.
The light at different times of the day, the scenery in different seasons, the occasional flying birds and insects, the sudden fall of leaves, and the cars running on the street will bring a steady stream of fresh feelings to the cat.
When there are so many fun things to stimulate the cat, how many cats can bear the loneliness and look out the window without curiosity?
Enjoy the warmth
Finally, temperature and sunlight are also common reasons why cats like to stay near Windows.
Sunlight can come in through the Windows, and cats love warmth.
When the sun is shining, the cat may choose to stay near the window, or sleep, or leisurely look out the window.
Regardless of the outdoor scene, the warmth alone has made many cats very satisfied.
Leave a Reply