by Matthew Cobb
Another tw**t from Canadian science journalist Ziya Tong:
Kitty be genius! 😉
Video: https://t.co/b4cQkpKO30 pic.twitter.com/JPgSHOVM9P
— Earthling (@ziyatong) February 21, 2016
Interesting that the cat has learned to go through the gap backwards. Why? The same technique would work just as well standing up and going through head first – it’s essentially the same thing as going under a very low door, but with added bipedal agility…
In fact, looking at the space, there’s basically enough room for it to get its head through by turning it at a slight angle. What on earth is this cat doing???
[EDIT: Reader Margery points out below in a comment that the cat is in fact trapped between two windows – the inner one is slightly open. Presumably kitteh went in to investigate what was there, realised it was stuck, so had to back out…]
Perhaps Kitteh learned this trick with a slightly smaller gap.
That is an interesting way to do it. Cats are very flexible.
Flexibility as a substitute for intelligence.
Burn the witch! Burn the witch!
I’ll get some faggots for the pyre.
I think smart kitty is between two glass panels. Probably went out head first, but unable to turn around between the two panels.
Yeah, I think you are right. The outer sliding door is closed.
Still, kitty be adaptive!
Well, the outer glass door is fixed and doesn’t slide open, while the inner one is open up to the (hidden) upper doorstop. Poor Kitty ventured where it ought not to.
Well spotted! That is the explanation I think – MC
I suspect this behavior is reflexive and based on the cat’s evolved hunting behaviors. As a hunter of rodents, cats undoubtedly found themselves in many tunnels and crevasses too small to maneuver in. The best way out would be to back out until the constriction opened up. 5,000 years ago the Chinese domesticated cats to protect their granaries. Sliding glass doors were probably not around then, but still…
Very clever.
The cat is contextualizing.
One cannot contextualize without some form of free will, at least as to time and space. Nor is there learning without free will.
Redefinition may be appropriate
F*&^n’ cats.
Of my two cats, I think one would have figured out how to extricate herself this way, while the other would have just stood there and caterwauled for help for as long as it took someone to find him.