It is a common showbiz adage that films about animals almost always draw an audience, but a new study proves this is not a myth - it is a function of the human brain.
At the sight of an adorable pet, in Hong Kong's case typically a poodle, most people would feel compelled to stop and stroke it while cooing: 'Oh ... so lovely.' If they see a snake, a crocodile or a spider they would usually show fear and back away.
Researchers discovered that these responses are prompted by a specific part of the human brain that is hard-wired to detect rapidly creatures of the non-human kind.
What is more, the same thing happens if people see images and movies or hear stories about such animals, which goes some way to explaining why films about animals - even animals talking to people and to each other in English - never fail to capture people's attention.
Researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) say that neurons throughout the amygdala - a centre in the brain known for processing emotional reactions - respond preferentially to images of animals.
Their findings appear online in the journal Nature Neuroscience.