Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Voge obamb here It's hard to say
Speaker 1: whether a human wielding a laser pointer or a cat
Speaker 1: chasing the light is having more fun. While you sit
Speaker 1: chuckling on the couch twitching that six dollar device around
Speaker 1: in your hand, your cat is experiencing real moments of
Speaker 1: heroic desperation as she leaps over the ottoman and scrambles
Speaker 1: up the wall after that tiny speck of light she's
Speaker 1: never able to catch. It's great exercise for indoor cats,
Speaker 1: But why do cats find this activity compelling? First starters,
Speaker 1: cats are attracted to anything that allows them to stalk prey,
Speaker 1: even just for play. We spoke with Dr Stephanie Bourne's
Speaker 1: wheel and animal behavior specialist at the Cummings Veterinary Medical
Speaker 1: Center at Tufts University. She said the laser simulates the
Speaker 1: movement of prey, so it attracts the cat's tension and
Speaker 1: gets the cat to chase and pounce on it. It
Speaker 1: is certainly a play behavior in young cats and maybe
Speaker 1: in older indoor cats as well. However, it may also
Speaker 1: be an abrant expression of the predatory behavior. That is,
Speaker 1: if you will hijacked by the laser movement. Wild Cats,
Speaker 1: feral cats, and even your sweet spoiled indoor outdoor kittens
Speaker 1: who sleeps under the covers with you are all single minded,
Speaker 1: solitary predators. They're wired to spend a significant portion of
Speaker 1: their waking outdoor hours stalking their food, and since indoor
Speaker 1: cats are often woefully understimulated in this regard, playing with
Speaker 1: a laser satisfies that predatory urge. But it's just a
Speaker 1: moving point of light, insubstantial and obviously not a mouse.
Speaker 1: Cats know that right. For many cats, the laser pointer
Speaker 1: is compelling in a way that makes you wonder if
Speaker 1: you too are at the same party. Well, in some
Speaker 1: ways you're probably not. We also spoke with Dr John
Speaker 1: Bradshaw at the University of Bristol School of Veterinary Science
Speaker 1: and author of the Trainable Cat and Cats Sense. He
Speaker 1: said it's unlikely that cats perceived the light from a
Speaker 1: laser pointer in the same way we do, because in
Speaker 1: several ways their eyes work differently to ours. We both
Speaker 1: have eyes that point forwards, giving us similar abilities and
Speaker 1: perceiving how far away something is, but the similarities pretty
Speaker 1: much end there. According to Bradshaw, although cats react strongly
Speaker 1: to the red dot produced by a laser pointer. It
Speaker 1: almost certainly doesn't have anything to do with the color.
Speaker 1: That's because cat eyes are not sensitive to the color red,
Speaker 1: so they most likely see the dot of light as
Speaker 1: white or yellow. But cats are more sensitive to movement
Speaker 1: than we are because their eyes connect to their brains
Speaker 1: differently than ours. Bradshaw said, I suspect this is the
Speaker 1: main attraction of the pointer for the cat. The movement
Speaker 1: is really exciting, and even when we think we're holding
Speaker 1: the pointer steady, the slight tremble in our hands probably
Speaker 1: generates enough movement to keep the cat interested. So a
Speaker 1: laser pointer interests kitties obviously because it gives them something
Speaker 1: to pelling to hunt and play with. But some that
Speaker 1: are in arians think laser playtime might be psychologically taxing
Speaker 1: for a cat, as it has them constantly chasing after
Speaker 1: something they'll never be able to catch. Some vets say
Speaker 1: this can lead to neurosis, which can lead to symptoms
Speaker 1: like over grooming, but Bradshaw thinks not. He said, I
Speaker 1: don't agree that using a laser pointer to amuse your
Speaker 1: cat will make it neurotic. Cats hunt their toys all
Speaker 1: the time, and the fact that they never actually succeed
Speaker 1: in killing any of them doesn't seem to do the
Speaker 1: cat any harm. There may be a few cats that
Speaker 1: become obsessed with laser pointers, and for those it would
Speaker 1: probably be best to ration their exposure. But for the
Speaker 1: average Maggie, a few minutes of chasing a red dot
Speaker 1: around the apartment should simply provide some of the mental
Speaker 1: and physical stimulation the indoor cats especially need. Boyne's Wile
Speaker 1: agrees that the main concern should not be what you're
Speaker 1: using to exercise your indoor cat so much as whether
Speaker 1: you're doing it at all. She said, insufficient stimulation is
Speaker 1: a serious problem for indoor cats. Cats are highly territorial,
Speaker 1: solitary hunters that spend much of their day's foraging for
Speaker 1: small prey animals. I'm not advocating letting them outside to
Speaker 1: be killed by predators are hit by cars, but I
Speaker 1: do advocate managing their environment as one does any captive
Speaker 1: wild animal, so that they have the opportunity to do
Speaker 1: what they've evolved to do. What does that entail A
Speaker 1: Boyin's while explained regular opportunities for predatory play and exercise,
Speaker 1: feeding with foraging toys, safe opportunities to monitor wildlife from
Speaker 1: window seats, plenty of vertical space, and hiding spots should
Speaker 1: all be part of a cat's environment. Cats are not,
Speaker 1: or rather should not, be, low maintenance pets. To keep
Speaker 1: a cat requires effort and understanding to be able to
Speaker 1: provide a satisfactory life in an indoor context. I think
Speaker 1: that laser play can be included in an overall plan
Speaker 1: of enrichment. Today's episode was written by Jesselyn Shields and
Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. From one, there's lots
Speaker 1: of other stimulating topics. Visit our home planet, how stuff
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