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posted by martyb on Monday March 11 2019, @01:17AM   Printer-friendly
from the so-you-know-it-is-time-to-move-your-hand dept.

If you have a cat, you are furmiliar with the habit your furiend has of wiggling their hind end right before cathletically pouncing, catching, and shredding whatever unfurtunate part of your body foolishly moved under the blankets. This leads to an idle curiosity - why do cats adjust their rear before pouncing?

John Hutchinson, a professor of evolutionary biomechanics at the Royal Veterinary College in London has several pawsible theories that may tell the tail:

may help press the hindlimbs into the ground to give cats added friction (traction) for pushing them forward in the pounce

It may also have a sensory role to prepare the vision, proprioception [an awareness of one's position and movement] and muscle — and whole cat — for the rapid neural commands needed for the pounce

It probably does stretch the muscles a bit and that might help with pouncing

This isn't behavior unique to house-cats. Wild felines all the way up to lions and tigers litterally do this fur real in the wild.

On the subject of purforming a proper acatdemic study to determine an answer to this biting question, Hutchinson isn't kitten around

"it must be done, somehow. I shall marshal some scientists, and some friendly cats, in due course."

Stay tuned, if the study is done purfectly we may eventually be able to scratch off another timeless question. Which would be pawsome.


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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by NotSanguine on Monday March 11 2019, @02:43AM (5 children)

    So you think they are a...catastrophe?

    Decidedly. I didn't even get through TFS before I went catatonic!

    --
    No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
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  • (Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Monday March 11 2019, @02:50AM (4 children)

    by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 11 2019, @02:50AM (#812527) Journal

    Well, I guess he wasn't lion then

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    В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Monday March 11 2019, @03:00AM (3 children)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday March 11 2019, @03:00AM (#812529) Journal

      me OWWWW

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      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Monday March 11 2019, @03:49AM (2 children)

        Yes, this is getting quite painful.

        And the puns aren't even cathartic!

        Ouch! I hurt myself with that one!

        --
        No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
        • (Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Monday March 11 2019, @01:10PM (1 child)

          by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 11 2019, @01:10PM (#812656) Journal

          Our hearts are extended to the 17 catsualties of the recent Soylent News puns.

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          В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
          • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday March 11 2019, @03:50PM

            by Freeman (732) on Monday March 11 2019, @03:50PM (#812727) Journal

            That's fur real.

            --
            Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"