Tonight's Horizon on BBC Two, Cat Watch 2014, gets into the antisocial minds of our feline friends
Cat Watch 2014: the New Horizon Experiment follows 100 cats in different locations in Sussex over three nights. Photo: BBC
What is Cat Watch 2014?
The new Horizon cat experiment – according to the subtitle.
What’s the old cat experiment?
Last year Horizon carried out an experiment into how our cats behave when they
think we’re not watching. The
Secret Life of the Cat attached GPS trackers and cat-cams to 50
felines in a Surrey village and followed them as they went about their days
– and nights – hunting, fighting, eating and sleeping.
What’s new about the new one?
This year, the investigation has been expanded. In Cat Watch 2014 we follow,
over three nights, 100 cats in different locations in Sussex – city, coastal
village and rural farm. So, it was one village and 50 cats; now it’s three
places, and 100 cats.
Has the new experiment actually found out anything new?
The series’s big revelation is that when cats appear to misbehave for their own superior amusement, they’re actually stressed. If they’re darting around and sniffing things, urinating where they’re not supposed to and generally behaving erratically, it’s almost always because something in their environment has changed and their sense of security has been compromised.
The source of stress that most encompasses all of these feelings is the presence of other cats, and the rapidly escalating problem of feline overpopulation is making things worse for the misunderstood fluffball who just wants to be alone. “The thing that really stuck out for me was the sheer number of cats that exist in urban areas,” says Dr Sarah Ellis, a leading expert on feline behaviour who concentrated her efforts on a built-up area of central Brighton for the programme. “The density is unbelievable and the fact that so many of the cats living there cope so well is nothing short of remarkable.”
Basically, cats hate each other; and they don’t even care about us that much
While dogs descend from wolves, who historically hunted in packs, cats are solitary creatures. Urban cats have adapted to a domestic environment and enjoy human company – well, anything to get out of actually having to hunt for their food – but they still can’t stand other cats. Animal shelters often insist that kittens are homed in pairs, but the Cat Watch experts believe that this is asking for trouble since cats who aren’t related can rarely tolerate each other. “This is the downside of being a cat lover,” says Ellis. “The more we love them, the more we have, but the higher the density, the bigger the problem we create for them.” Indeed, many of the Brighton cats barely left their homes during the course of a day, but it wasn’t down to laziness – they simply didn’t want to encounter other cats. Meanwhile, the trackers showed that their counterparts in more sparsely populated areas, like the village and the farm, could roam up to two miles a day without the danger of bumping into other cats and, ugh, having to make small-talk. We’ve all been there.
For instance
Take city boy Minkey. According to his owners, he’d been seriously stressed, and the hidden cameras quickly revealed why – in just one day, Minkey’s garden, which appeared to be a relaxing urban sanctuary, received 10 unexpected feline visitors. There’s nothing a cat hates more than uninvited guests muscling in on their territory.
Or, think of how stressed cats get by a house move. “A cat’s home is like a security blanket,” explains Ellis. “While a dog is happy to go wherever their owner is, a cat’s primary attachment is to the physical structure they live in. The big problem is that when we move house, we usually wash all of our belongings, which makes the new environment even more stressful for the cat.”
How do we help these antisocial creatures?
Ellis advises keeping some items, such as bedding, unwashed during house a move so that the cat can sniff out its own pheromones even in a new place. Alternatively, owners can use a cotton glove to transfer scents from their pet’s facial glands onto new things. It might sound disgusting, but these pheromones aren’t detectable to humans – it’s just cats who have such enviably sharp senses that they can see, hear and smell things that humans never notice.
Also, don’t have a baby – a noisy infant in the house can so panic a cat they will go off and adopt a new home. And, don’t separate them from their mothers too soon when kittens. Negative experiences can scar cats from an early age, as they can humans.
Other than that, just leave them alone.
Cat Watch 2014: The New Horizon Cat Experiment is on Tuesday on BBC Two at 8.00pm
source
Has the new experiment actually found out anything new?
The series’s big revelation is that when cats appear to misbehave for their own superior amusement, they’re actually stressed. If they’re darting around and sniffing things, urinating where they’re not supposed to and generally behaving erratically, it’s almost always because something in their environment has changed and their sense of security has been compromised.
The source of stress that most encompasses all of these feelings is the presence of other cats, and the rapidly escalating problem of feline overpopulation is making things worse for the misunderstood fluffball who just wants to be alone. “The thing that really stuck out for me was the sheer number of cats that exist in urban areas,” says Dr Sarah Ellis, a leading expert on feline behaviour who concentrated her efforts on a built-up area of central Brighton for the programme. “The density is unbelievable and the fact that so many of the cats living there cope so well is nothing short of remarkable.”
Basically, cats hate each other; and they don’t even care about us that much
While dogs descend from wolves, who historically hunted in packs, cats are solitary creatures. Urban cats have adapted to a domestic environment and enjoy human company – well, anything to get out of actually having to hunt for their food – but they still can’t stand other cats. Animal shelters often insist that kittens are homed in pairs, but the Cat Watch experts believe that this is asking for trouble since cats who aren’t related can rarely tolerate each other. “This is the downside of being a cat lover,” says Ellis. “The more we love them, the more we have, but the higher the density, the bigger the problem we create for them.” Indeed, many of the Brighton cats barely left their homes during the course of a day, but it wasn’t down to laziness – they simply didn’t want to encounter other cats. Meanwhile, the trackers showed that their counterparts in more sparsely populated areas, like the village and the farm, could roam up to two miles a day without the danger of bumping into other cats and, ugh, having to make small-talk. We’ve all been there.
For instance
Take city boy Minkey. According to his owners, he’d been seriously stressed, and the hidden cameras quickly revealed why – in just one day, Minkey’s garden, which appeared to be a relaxing urban sanctuary, received 10 unexpected feline visitors. There’s nothing a cat hates more than uninvited guests muscling in on their territory.
Or, think of how stressed cats get by a house move. “A cat’s home is like a security blanket,” explains Ellis. “While a dog is happy to go wherever their owner is, a cat’s primary attachment is to the physical structure they live in. The big problem is that when we move house, we usually wash all of our belongings, which makes the new environment even more stressful for the cat.”
How do we help these antisocial creatures?
Ellis advises keeping some items, such as bedding, unwashed during house a move so that the cat can sniff out its own pheromones even in a new place. Alternatively, owners can use a cotton glove to transfer scents from their pet’s facial glands onto new things. It might sound disgusting, but these pheromones aren’t detectable to humans – it’s just cats who have such enviably sharp senses that they can see, hear and smell things that humans never notice.
Also, don’t have a baby – a noisy infant in the house can so panic a cat they will go off and adopt a new home. And, don’t separate them from their mothers too soon when kittens. Negative experiences can scar cats from an early age, as they can humans.
Other than that, just leave them alone.
Cat Watch 2014: The New Horizon Cat Experiment is on Tuesday on BBC Two at 8.00pm
source
