Your cat may or may not love you, but it knows your scent

UNITED STATES – For animals that are warm and fuzzy, cats have a penchant for independence or even aloofness. They tend to have their own ideas about what they should be doing, which may or may not align with their owners’ wishes.

Cats’ independent nature may be a factor in why research into their behaviour has lagged behind scientific explorations into those of other domesticated animals, including dogs.

“In reality, cats understand many things as well as dogs do, but they do not show it in their behaviour and are more guarded, which makes it difficult to conduct experiments,” said professor of animal science Hidehiko Uchiyama at the Tokyo University of Agriculture.

But in a study published on May 28 in science journal Plos One, Prof Uchiyama and his team managed to achieve some research findings in feline behaviour, establishing that cats respond differently to the scents of their owners than to the odours of strangers. That suggests your feline friend knows what you smell like, in addition to what you look and sound like.

Through referrals from friends and colleagues, the researchers recruited 30 cats and their owners to participate in the study.

The cats’ owners captured their own scents by rubbing cotton swabs behind their ears, between their toes and under their armpits. Eight additional people who do not own pets and did not know the cats’ owners were recruited to be “odour donors”.

Each of the cats, in the comfort of its own home, was then presented with an array of test tubes containing the cotton swabs from its owner, a stranger and a blank control. A camera mounted to the experimental set-up recorded the cats’ reactions to the test tubes.

The cats spent more time sniffing the samples from the strangers than from their owners – an indication that the cats could recognise their owners’ scents, and devoted more time to exploring the ones they had never smelled before.

While this finding might seem like common sense, it’s “a very important piece of information”, said Dr Carlo Siracusa, an associate professor of animal behaviour at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine who was not involved with the study. “This is how science works. You need to prove everything.”

Prof Uchiyama and his colleagues further analysed video recordings of the cats sniffing the test tubes and observed the animals predominantly using their right nostrils to smell the strangers’ test tubes, regardless of where the tube was placed within the array.

These findings seemed to corroborate previous studies of other animals, including dogs, which also led with their right nostrils when exploring strange scents.

“The left nostril is used for familiar odours, and the right nostril is used for new and alarming odours, suggesting that scenting may be related to how the brain functions,” Prof Uchiyama said. “It is likely the right brain is preferred for processing emotionally alarming odours.”

Dr Siracusa urged caution in interpreting whether the cats’ sniffing behaviour relates to brain function: “The study did not prove that the right side of the brain is activated.” Proving that will require cats willing to cooperate with having their brains scanned while they sniff things.

Nonetheless, he said studies like Prof Uchiyama’s are important for furthering human understanding of feline behaviour, which can help people provide better care for them.

Dr Siracusa also commented on the logistical feat of designing a study protocol deemed acceptable by its feline participants. “I really commend this group of scientists for being successful in engaging 30 cats. Most cats want nothing to do with your research.” NYTIMES