A team of scientists from Kyoto University, who are working on Animal Cognition journal, are suggesting that perhaps humans have not yet fully understood what these furry and ferocious felines are capable of – concerning their intellect.
Based on how cats seem to understand that rattling boxes have hidden objects inside them, the researchers have come to a rather bizarre conclusion that they are deeply aware of some of the laws of physics. Obviously, they don’t mean that the cats can tell apart the Einstein and the Newton theories of gravitational attraction, but instead, they understand “cause and effect”, the notion that a noise or motion has resulted from a previous action.
Basically, cats are able to predict the existence of invisible objects based on what they can hear, which may partly explain why they’re such good hunters.
The authors of the journal write, “This study may be viewed as evidence for cats having a rudimentary understanding of gravity.” They also added that, “we have found no [previous] study specifically testing knowledge of this fundamental physical rule in cats.”
There’s no question that they’re intelligent creatures. It is a big bonus to being furry and playful. Like many other non-primate animals, such as ravens, they can infer the presence of objects or even be alerted based on audio and visual cues.