Book review: Cat Sense, by John Bradshaw

Cat Sense: The Feline Enigma Revealed
by John Bradshaw
Allen Lane
4 stars
Steven Poole

Cats are rather cleverer than commonly assumed, as biologist and animal-behaviour expert John Bradshaw shows in his sleek new book. It's true that they are not much good with tools but then, as Bradshaw wisely speculates, perhaps humans, who tend to design tests for human-style intelligence, haven't yet figured out laboratory scenarios that would allow feline brainpower to flourish.

Bradshaw's book mixes pellets of cat lore with accounts of feline evolution, anatomy, genetics and development from newborn kitten to adulthood, plus descriptions of cat-psychology experiments in the laboratory, many of which he has conducted himself. Some of the most interesting parts indicate holes in our current scientific knowledge. "Many mother cats try to move their litters at least once before they wean them," he says, "but science has yet to find out why."(It might, he suggests, help to avoid fleas.)

No one knows why cats go crazy for catnip, nor why they are able "to classify shapes according to whether they are closed or open".

Bradshaw says cats experience strong emotions, and sometimes might be suffering in silence. They aren't particularly sociable, and cats who are housed with others who weren't litter-mates can become chronically stressed.

Luckily, then, cats probably aren't aware that today they are once again hate figures, the target of ecologists who, armed with dodgy statistics, accuse cats of "murdering" songbirds. It's more complicated than that, Bradshaw says. (Rats also kill songbirds, and cats keep the rodent numbers down. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds says the disappearance of habitat is a far more important factor in the decline of songbird populations than predator numbers.)

But we can at least reverse the counterproductive selection pressure we exert on the domestic cat when we neuter house cats before they reproduce, he says: this means the "friendliest, most docile" cats are prevented from leaving any descendants, while ferals will leave more offspring. Unintentionally, we are causing cats to evolve into animals society won't like as much.

Inveterate cat-haters probably won't appreciate this book, but anyone else might. It is written in a friendly and engaging way, has helpful tips for cat owners, and is packed with excellent cat facts.

Why, you might have wondered, do cats get stuck up trees? Because all their claws face forwards, so none can be used as brakes on the descent. Cats are good at twisting mid-air to land on their feet, but they have an even more impressive trick: some cats adopt a "parachute" position during a long fall, with all four legs stuck out to the side, before coming back to the landing position at the last moment. This pose, Bradshaw calculates, "limits the falling speed to a maximum of fifty-three miles an hour [85kmh]" so enabling some cats to fall from high-rises and walk away nonchalantly.

Guardian News & Media