Vet Anne Fawcett: New research shows that a cat can be ‘left-pawed’
IT USED to be thought that “handedness”, or lateralisation, was unique to humans. As with so many assumptions about what makes us different from animals, this has been proven wrong by a study.
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WHEN it comes to doing things with our hands, like writing or brushing our teeth, most of us have a dominant hand. Around 90 per cent of us are right handed, and just 10 per cent left handed. It used to be thought that “handedness”, or lateralisation, was unique to humans.
As with so many assumptions about what makes us different from animals, this has been proven wrong. Dogs, horses, whales, primates and amphibian species display lateralisation in their behaviour.
And now a team of researchers at the Animal Behaviour Centre in Belfast have found that cats too are either left or right “pawed”. They asked owners of 44 cats to carefully observe the cat’s movements over a period of time, as well as conducting some basic experiments (like getting cats to reach for food). They found that cats tended to use the same paw when stepping down, stepping into the litter tray, and reaching for food.
The majority of cats showed a preference or bias for a particular paw, although unlike us they didn’t differ so dramatically between left and right sides. Males were more likely to use their left paw, while females were more likely to use their right. A small number of cats appear to be “ambipawstrous”, happily using either paw.
Dr Anne Fawcett is a lecturer in veterinary science at the University of Sydney and a vet with Sydney Animal Hospitals Inner West.
Read her blog: smallanimaltalk.com
Two cute kitties play patty cake
