WEBVTT - Comfort in the Box: Cat Edition 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.280 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, the production of 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:14.600 My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:17.799 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:20.599 it's cat a clock here on Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:24.720 We're gonna be doing cats today, that's right. Uh. Particularly, 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:28.240 we're gonna be talking about cats sitting in boxes, being 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:30.640 interested in boxes, and we'll get a little bit into 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:34.919 into humans sitting and sleeping in boxes as well. So 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:37.360 let's start by pointing out the obvious here, and that 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:39.800 is that cats love a good box. We don't have 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:43.559 to tell you this. Cat owners or just Internet users 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:47.800 out there are probably familiar with this scenario, often summed 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:52.800 up with the MIMI headline or caption If I fits, 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:55.960 I sits. If the cat at all fits in the box, 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:58.480 then it will sit in the box. Even if the 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:00.920 cat doesn't quite fit in the box, you know, the 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:04.880 cat will. A cat will often uh take the occasion 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:07.600 to create a sort of muffin top of its entire 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:11.480 body around the lip of a somewhat too small box 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:15.560 for it. Yeah, there's some hilarious pictures of this online. Um. 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:17.880 Now for my own partic I can mainly speak to 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:21.600 my cat, or well, the cat that lives in my house, Mochy. 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:23.479 She I don't know if she's my cat. She's kind 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:27.160 of her own self cat. And um, you're her feeder. 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:30.240 I feed her and I clean up her poop desert 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:34.200 and as as a thank you, she attacks my feet 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:38.160 regularly and wakes me up between the hours of four 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:43.399 am and six am demanding to be fit. Uh. But 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:45.640 and she likes my wife a lot more than me. 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:48.560 But anyway, I'm still moch is good. I love her. 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:52.280 Moch is a good cat. She's amusing, she's cute. And 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:55.040 whenever we get a package in, we'll give her the 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:58.120 chance to check out that box. So we'll put it 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:00.640 there on the floor. Four She doesn't always sit inside it. 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:02.880 Sometimes she'll just come out and check it out. If 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:05.560 we put it on its side, she may walk inside it. 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:09.240 Maybe she'll slit down, maybe she won't, Maybe she'll hang out. 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:12.000 It's totally up to her. I've often thought about the 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:14.720 conflict that must go on within the mind of a 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:18.080 cat when it is confronted with its carrier crate, you 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:20.600 know the box that people you. When I was a kid, 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:23.960 we would take our cat to the vet, not in 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:26.000 a not in like one of those nice crates that 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:27.400 has like the cage door and all that. But it 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:30.320 was a cardboard box that had like fold up handles 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:32.960 and breathing holes and stuff like. It was made for 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:34.960 a cat to go in it. Yes, it was like 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:40.839 a cardboard box specifically manufactured for cat delivery. Okay, yeah, 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:43.800 we never never had one of those. Uh we we 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:47.519 have just a plastic and metal cat carrier. But yeah, 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:50.680 that's a totally different enclosure for for a cat that 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:54.560 is often associated with the stress of going other places, right. 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:56.400 I mean, that's what I was thinking about though, is that, 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:58.720 like there there there are two different things pulling in 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:00.639 the mind at the same time. On the one hand, 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:04.000 you've got the learned associations like, oh that thing means 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:07.200 the vet. That's bad. But still it's still a box. 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:11.400 I don't know, it looks pretty good in there. I 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.000 don't know. Mochi does not go for the for the 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:18.519 cat carrier. She she has negative associations there, but but 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:20.880 you know, she'll she'll definitely go and she at least 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:23.919 check out a shipping container that has come in um 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:26.400 And also we have shelves in our home that are 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:29.880 roughly cube shaped have cube shaped spaces in them, and 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:31.720 some of these are filled up with books or or 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:33.840 have like a drawer put in them. But we also 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:36.000 have some at ground at a floor level in the 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:38.680 house that have other things in them, like one have 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:41.320 shoes uh and he's used as a shoe hutch, and 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:44.920 other has a trio of decorative statues in them. And 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:48.480 Mochi loves darting into these spaces, um, you know, sort 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:51.360 of plotting from within them. And of course she'll move 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:53.760 the statues around whenever she's in there, so we frequently 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:56.440 have to put the statues back where they go. Oh yeah, 0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:59.080 I can imagine being jealous of the inanimate objects that 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:01.880 get their own little beholes. Yeah, or I mean, I 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:04.520 think a huge part of this. So there are two 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:07.360 things right. First of all, a cat, of domestic cat 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:11.080 is essentially both predator and prey. So they have this 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:13.280 relationship with the world where they are that you know, 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:15.720 they need to find hiding places so as to stalk 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:18.800 their prey and to engage in these sort of behaviors 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:22.520 that they've evolved to uh uh to do. Or the 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:25.360 other side is they need to be able to hide themselves. 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:26.880 They need to be wary of things that might be 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:29.160 after them. And then on top of all of that, 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:31.560 if you have an indoor cat like Mochi is an 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:35.599 indoor cat um, they live in a confined environment that 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:40.359 they and they ultimately belong in a wider world. They 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:42.400 shouldn't go out there. She should not go out there. 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:45.320 She's not ready for it. There's too much, uh, there's 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:47.279 too much out there to freak her out. And also 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:50.320 that she's gonna eat birds, she's an invasive species. All 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:54.479 of that. So she is where she is, but it 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:57.240 kind of makes them a little stir crazy, I think, 0:04:57.240 --> 0:04:59.280 you know. So they have to make the most out 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:01.919 of the space they have. And so if there is 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:04.200 a space and a shelf for a new box, they're 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:06.240 gonna go check it out, just like you would check 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:08.320 it out if you had not left the house in 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:11.039 you know, five years, except maybe to a facility where 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:14.080 I get punctured with needles. Yes, yeah, you know it. 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:16.400 Get create. That's your universe, you know. And and and and 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:19.359 so you can maybe understand some of these behaviors. But 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:23.640 then there there are other aspects of of cat fascination 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:27.320 with with new items that that I've I've found intriguing. 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:31.440 So this cat of ours, Mochi, also loves, and I 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:35.279 mean loves, a new set of Lego or Ikea instructions. 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:40.280 If these rectangular papers are introduced into the house and 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.200 for any amount of time and she sees them, she 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:45.440 will set on them. She will go up and she 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:47.560 will she will have a seat on them. She may 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:50.440 sleep on them. Likewise, if they are print outs from 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:53.479 the computer, if the boy leaves his homework out, then 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:56.960 the cat will inevitably sleep on that the on that paperwork. 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:00.040 We've had some very important paperwork in the house that 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:02.000 has been left out in the cat will then decide 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:04.480 to sleep on it. I feel like this is not 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:07.600 confined just two cats. It may be more prevalent in cats, 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:09.760 but I've noticed in my dog he loves to if 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:12.440 we put out a set of instructions on the floor, 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:15.719 or any kind of roughly rectangular shaped flat thing on 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:18.000 the floor, there's a real good chance he will move 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:21.360 on top of it. Which is weird with with animals, right, 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:24.280 our pet animals, because for the most part, I mean, 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:26.640 they're not supposed that they're technically not supposed to be 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:28.960 able to go everywhere generally there are places I don't 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:32.080 want my cat delay and walk, but if people are 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:33.839 out of the house, yeah, she can kind of go 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:36.440 wherever she wants. And yet it's going to be the 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:38.560 I kea instruction manual, it's going to be the Lego 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:42.440 manual or some paperwork. Well, this was actually taken to 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:47.120 another level of absurdity by something that connects to some 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:48.960 of the articles we're going to talk about today, which 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:55.080 was a viral hashtag on Twitter called hashtag cat squares. 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:57.480 Did you read about this at the time, Um, I 0:06:57.480 --> 0:06:59.120 don't think I saw it at the time, but I've 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:01.520 I've been catching up on it. Yeah, I I don't 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:03.840 remember being aware of this either. But essentially what it 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:07.680 was was people were posting on Twitter photos where they 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:10.239 would get some tape, just like you know, some painter's 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:13.360 tape or something, and lay it down on the floor 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:16.800 to make a square, and then their cat would come 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:22.960 over and sit inside the square. Why strange. I mean, 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:26.640 there's something clearly interesting going on with this behavior, and 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:29.880 it seems I mean, with with stuff like this that's 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:33.000 just anecdotal observations. You always wonder if there's some amount 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:35.840 of just coincidence. The cats just sitting somewhere, or maybe 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:38.600 it's just sitting where you happen to be looking. You know, 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:41.720 it's taking cues from you. But it at least seemed 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:44.360 consistent enough that people were saying, like, yeah, cats sit 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:47.800 down on pieces of paper or instructions or squares of 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:50.640 other kinds, and even if you just make a square 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:52.720 outline out of tape, they'll come get into that. It 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:57.160 seemed consistent enough that this is maybe a scientific phenomenon 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:00.200 worth investigating. And so this is gonna connect to at 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:02.200 least one piece of research that we'll talk about in 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:05.000 today's episode. Hat tip that I first got the idea 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:07.920 to do this episode today when I came across a 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:11.040 piece by Jennifer will Let in Ours Technica that was 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:16.360 covering this recent study that used crowdsourced participation to test 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:19.840 visual perception and sitting behavior and cats. Will come back 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:24.040 to that specific study in a bit, but first I 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:26.560 wanted to move backward a bit and look at the 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:29.559 thing that we started talking about, which was the idea 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:33.880 of cats being obsessed with getting inside boxes, not squares 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:37.000 on the floor, but three dimensional boxes. As to the 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:40.760 question of why they love boxes so much, there are 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:43.800 a lot of answers you can find out there, and 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:46.280 I think this is something I encounter a lot when 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:47.960 I look into a question of like why is my 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:50.640 dog doing X? Or why does a cat do X? 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:54.440 Basically anything within the realm of explaining the behavior of 0:08:54.480 --> 0:08:58.400 common domestic animals. You can usually find a lot of 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:04.720 veterinary science animal behavior experts of varying levels of legitimacy 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:09.320 and their credentials, offering their opinion, but often nothing quite 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:14.199 like a solid scientific consensus answer that's provable by experiment. 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:16.679 But you can find some some good evidence that helps 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:20.600 back up a few competing explanations that might be complementary 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:24.760 of one another or might feed different aspects of box 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:29.760 occupation behaviors. Now, one very commonly cited answer is simply 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:34.640 that cats like boxes because cats are cryptic animals. They 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:37.400 like to hide. And this has to do with a 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:40.920 couple of things, both with perceptions of safety and with 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:44.480 predatory advantage. Yeah, like I said, they are both predator 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:48.280 and prey, and therefore it behooves them to be good 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:51.640 at hiding, to have hiding places scouted out, and to 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:54.360 hang out in them from time to time. Right, And 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:58.520 so one example of a cat behavior expert talking about 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:01.000 this that I came across was there's a guy named 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:04.400 Steven Zawistowski of the s p c A who didn't 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:08.000 explain or video about this for Business Insider in and 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:10.160 I've seen that one quoted a bunch of times in 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:13.880 other outlets, and his claims are basically that cats like 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:16.360 to hide, and a box gives them a sense of 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:19.520 safety and security because once they get into the box, 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:22.520 they limit the number of angles that they can be 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:25.920 approached from. You know, you're basically like limiting the amount 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:29.000 of space you need to be constantly aware of that 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:31.560 you need to be monitoring. And this seems like a 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:34.160 very reasonable guest to me, at least for part of 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:38.680 the explanation. I would actually guess a similar psychological drive 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:42.760 probably underlies a lot of human behaviors. For example, the 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:46.199 desire to sit with your back to a wall as 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:48.320 opposed to sitting in the middle of the room. What's 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:50.679 the table everybody wants at a restaurant? You you know, 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:54.240 almost everybody prefers the booth in the back corner of 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:57.080 the room as opposed to the table that's right in 0:10:57.080 --> 0:10:59.400 the middle of the room where you know, there's stuff 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:02.680 going on behind your back. Yeah, it feels safer and 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:05.160 feels like you're you're just less likely to be surprised. 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:09.000 Even if you're not really worried about physical danger, there's 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:11.840 something kind of happening at an instinctual level. A part 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:15.120 of it might even not be concerns about physical danger, 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.480 but concerns about social surprise and social threats, you know, 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:21.679 things that you would need to be aware of if 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:24.880 they were happening, even if they're not physically threatening. Yeah, 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:27.400 I mean, you might want to know who else is 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:29.439 coming into the restaurant, or you know, you want to 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:31.319 be able to see when your server is approaching that 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:33.400 sort of thing. You just wanted a general awareness of 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:35.880 your surroundings. And if you've got your back to a wall, 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:38.360 you're sort of wedged into a corner and all snug 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:40.920 and cozy, you can basically see anybody who's going to 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:45.400 approach you. But Zawistowski also says that boxes provide a 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:48.760 vantage point from which cats can dash out an attack, 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:50.520 and this connects to the other prong of what you 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:53.320 were saying about them being both predator and prey. You 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:55.920 know that it is good if you're a predator to 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:58.880 have a sort of information advantage on your prey. You 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:00.640 want to be hidden from them. You want to be 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:02.680 able to see them, but them not be able to 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:05.600 see you, and a hiding place like a box is 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:09.120 perfect for that. Now, I will say this seems potentially 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:12.880 true as an explanation of some boxes, but not all, 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:15.400 because I noticed that a lot of times cats seem 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:20.320 to really enjoy squeezing into small boxes that are, for example, 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.440 only open on the top, so they can't really see 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:27.560 anything around them. They couldn't possibly be watching something that 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:30.080 they would you know, lunge out at because they can 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:32.600 only see the ceiling or something like that. Am I 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:35.400 wrong about this? Now? You you know, you definitely see 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:37.520 this as well. Our cat likes to venture into the 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:41.640 laundry hamper pretty regularly, and and uh, you know, I 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:43.760 guess I should also point out that that our cat, 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:46.840 like a lot of cats, uses a litter box that 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:50.440 you enter from the top, so it's essentially like a hamper, 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:56.200 uh for of for for the litter um. But yeah, 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:58.959 I guess in thinking about this, because certainly if the 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:01.720 cat is at the bottom of the Andrey hamper, she's 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:04.920 not really able to see anything anymore. But I guess 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:06.480 one thing we always have to keep in mind with 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:09.920 cats is that they do have extremely acute hearing. So 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:13.720 that's true. Um, you know, they're their dependence on the 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:19.200 visual world is not the same as human dependence on 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:21.640 the visual world. That's a good point. Have you ever 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:24.440 seen Mochi spring out of the top of a box, 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:28.400 even at something that that she couldn't immediately see? M m, 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:32.040 not not really, but she does, you know, she will 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:33.440 spring out of the box. I guess that's another thing 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:36.719 to keep in mind is that cats are are are 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:40.960 generally quite agile as well, so uh, leaving the bottom 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:43.559 of the hamper is not the same as us emerging 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:46.000 from the bottom of a well, you know, like we 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:48.800 would have to painstakingly claw our way back up. The 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:51.160 cat can just launch itself out like a rocket and 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:53.400 it's good to go. Yes, So, well, I would not 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:56.480 consider this explanation. I don't know proven. I guess it 0:13:56.760 --> 0:13:59.679 seems like this is a very reasonable guess understanding the 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:03.720 cat role in its native environment and uh, and the 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:06.480 normal kinds of environmental pressures that would be on it 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:08.400 and how it would respond to them. That cats like 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:11.880 hiding places because as you say, they're both predator and prey, 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:14.319 they need a place that you know, limits the angles 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:17.199 they can be approached from and to to provide a 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:20.440 sense of security and safety for them and provides them 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:23.160 advantage point that they could potentially use to launch a 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:26.239 predatory attack from. So this all seems like a reasonable 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:28.960 gas s barring other evidence. But I did find some 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:33.359 more evidence for the enclosure security hypothesis that was documented 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:36.560 in another article that I was reading. So there was 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:40.600 an article by Brian Gardner in Wired in called why 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:43.920 do Cats Love Boxes So Much? And this pulled together 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:47.240 some other studies. So the author here, for one thing, 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:51.800 spoke to a researcher named Claudia Vinky of you trek 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:55.640 To University in the Netherlands, who has published scientific research 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:58.720 on the effects of access to a box on the 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:03.400 stress levels of cats in animal shelters. This research was 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:06.880 done in conjunction, so Vinky was the lead author, but 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:11.160 it was also done with L. M. Godein and UH 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:15.440 W J. R. Vander Lye in Applied Animal Behavior Science 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:20.400 in and this study points out that stress in shelter animals, 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:23.720 including cats, is important for a number of reasons. Of course, 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:26.560 It's just important on its own for the psychological welfare 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:29.080 of the cat. But stress is also an important factor 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:32.840 contributing to the physical health of animals like cats, because 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:36.600 higher levels of stress and animals could contribute to higher 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:40.680 rates of infectious disease due to immuno deficiency from the 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:45.040 cortisol response. Yeah. And I think anybody who's owned cats 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:48.200 for any amount of time, you you grow to realize that, 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:51.000 oh yeah, did they get stressed out? They can, They 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:54.920 can definitely get get ill. Um, particularly with ours like 0:15:54.960 --> 0:16:00.280 she has bladder issues, uh, and easily um compound by 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:03.040 her not drinking enough water or being just a little 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:06.600 bit too stressed. And then if and if that happens, 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:09.280 then then everybody in the house is stressed. Oh yeah, 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:13.880 I I can imagine. I feel for everybody in that scenario. Um. 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:16.440 But anyway, so the authors here right. The aim of 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:18.960 the present study was to determine the effect of a 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:22.800 hiding box on stress levels of newly arrived cats in 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:27.360 a Dutch animal shelter. Therefore, nineteen newly arrived shelter cats 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:30.800 were randomly divided into two groups. So the test group 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:33.040 had ten cats and they had access to a box 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:35.960 and then there was a control group of nine without 0:16:36.000 --> 0:16:39.640 a hiding box, and to determine the stress levels, they 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:44.560 would do these observational or behavioral observations over a fourteen 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:47.600 day period that we're done according to something called the 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:51.560 Kessler and Turner cat stress score. Now, the authors point 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:55.040 out that there are some limitations here because you the 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:59.080 the cats, uh stress score. Thing they're doing here is 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:01.280 just based on how having to observe the cat and 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:04.800 sort of count numbers of behaviors that would indicate or 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:09.520 believed to indicate certain levels of relaxation or stress response. 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:12.840 That you could probably get more accurate information about stress 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:16.680 responses by physiological measurements, like you know, maybe measuring levels 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:19.080 of cortisol in the body or something like that. Though 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:21.560 the problem there is that in order to do that, 0:17:21.600 --> 0:17:25.000 you would have to handle already stressed cats, which would itself, 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:28.199 uh sort of probably increase the amount of stress that 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:30.399 the cats are experiencing. So this is kind of a 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:33.440 difficult thing to measure accurately. But they did their best 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:38.320 with this observational behavioral scoring system. And this was taking 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:42.439 place during the cage quarantine period for incoming cats, so 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:44.320 they have to go through a quarantine period, you know, 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:47.560 as they're taken into the shelter, And the major findings 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:50.200 of this research where the cats in the test group, 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:53.119 so those were the cats with access to a hiding box, 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:57.439 showed less stress pretty quickly within the first couple of days, 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:01.000 with significant differences in the amount of stress between the 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:03.840 test group and the control group on days three and four. 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:07.679 But eventually, over time the stress levels of the cats 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:10.560 in the control group came down. It just took a 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:13.880 lot longer, So by day fourteen, the cats in both 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:16.879 groups were roughly the same in terms of stress. So 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:19.479 it looks like what happened is access to a hiding 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:23.199 box helped lower the stress of cats faster in a 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:27.119 frightening novel situation, but after a couple of weeks it 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:30.439 was no longer making a difference on average. But this 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:32.600 would kind of make sense if you imagine that the cats, 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:34.840 you know, when you first get to a new shelter, 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:38.560 that's probably the highest stress as they're like becoming accustomed 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:41.280 to this novel situation. So they're going to have the 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.760 most stress then and the most need for coping behaviors, 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:47.720 for example hiding in a box. And the authors pointed 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:50.159 out that even when the cats didn't have access to 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:52.720 a box, say, the cats in the control group would 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:56.879 sometimes try to do hiding behaviors without a box. For example, 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:00.560 they would try to hide behind their litter box. Yeah. 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:03.119 I think anybody who has if you've ever gotten a 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:06.120 new cat or or brought a cat into a new environment, 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:08.399 this is frequently what happens. Like the cat and they 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:12.479 spend the first few days or or even longer just 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:15.199 hanging out in like one particular hiding spot, say in 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:17.320 a you know, in a closet or something like that, 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:20.400 and the author is also uh. They cite a study 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:24.040 by cry and Casey in the journal Animal Welfare from 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:26.399 two thousand seven that found basically the same thing. It 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:30.399 found that access to a hiding box decreased the amount 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:34.119 of apparent stress behaviors in cats at a at an 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:37.480 adoption center and did not make adoption any less likely. 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:39.520 I think one thing they were wondering about is, okay, 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:42.080 does if you give a cat a hiding space, will 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:44.879 that make the cat less social and thus make it 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:48.320 less likely to get adopted? And they found no um. 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:51.040 Cats that were that had access to a hiding space 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:53.400 were no less likely to get adopted, and they seem 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:56.320 to be less stressed. So hiding spaces for cats are 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:58.960 are good, it seems all around. But in that Wired 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:02.480 article by Gardener, UH, he cites an email exchange that 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:05.000 he had with Claudiavinki, the author of that that first 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:08.280 Dutch study UH, and she says that quote, hiding is 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:11.800 a behavioral strategy of the species to cope with environmental 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:15.320 changes and stressors. So new stuff is going on, you 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:17.439 don't know how to deal with it. It's it's freaking 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:19.600 you out. How do you react? You go and hide 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:21.520 and if you have a box, that's going to really 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:29.159 help chill you out. Thank you, thank you. Now. There 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:33.000 is an interesting other observation that Gardner dug up in 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:36.000 this article, another line of reasoning that seems a little 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:39.680 bit related but actually different. So he cites the Cambridge 0:20:39.720 --> 0:20:42.960 University Press guide to the Domestic Cat, The Biology of 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:46.600 its Behavior, that's the title, UH, and this book observes 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:50.920 that quote cats do not appear to develop conflict resolution 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:54.920 strategies to the extent that more gregarious species do. So 0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:59.320 they may attempt to circumvent agonistic encounters by avoiding others 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:03.680 or dec reasing their activity so that that's an interesting 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:07.000 sort of twist on this right, that the the retreat 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:10.360 to a box for a cat maybe not only a 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:15.679 safety mechanism like fearing physical danger, but also a social behavior, 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:20.919 a way of managing social relationships by avoiding potential conflict 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:24.360