One of the cats’ favorite and most common forms of play has a very close look to fighting. But the line that allows us to understand when our cute friends are really playing games and when they are really fighting is pretty thin.
Researchers also rolled up their sleeves to solve this problem. The new research aimed to identify the most common behaviors between cats that play games and cats that fight aggressively.
The researchers wanted to see how they could distinguish feline fighting play from true agonism, a word derived from the Greek for “fight”: “Successful interpretation of social interactions between cats is an important part of meeting standards for the well-being of cohabiting cats in multi-cat homes and household contamination.” Helps reduce the risk of additional undesirable behaviors, such as Perhaps one of the most overlooked issues that often worries owners is separating demanding and chaotic social play in cats from agonistic interaction[…] There seems to be a blurred line between playful and agonistic aggression among cats.”
To better understand cats’ fighting games, the researchers observed 105 interactions between cats and divided them into three categories: playful, moderate, or agonistic. Categorization was decided in two ways. First, the researchers tracked the frequency and duration of six key behavioral elements, and second, these behaviors were evaluated by cat behavior experts.
The results showed not only consistent behavior between the playful, moderate, and agonistic groups, but also that the two approaches that categorize each interaction yielded similar results. This meant they were able to identify common behaviors between cats playing for fun, those somewhere in the middle, and those who were serious.
Cats that fought playfully tended to engage in mostly wrestling and didn’t make much of a noise during this time. But when things went bad, behaviors like chasing and making noise were more common. In the middle groups, game fighters tended to imitate the behavior of the player group similarly, although they exhibited the characteristics of both player and fighting cat pairs.
“Our findings provide valuable practical evidence that can be used to help owners detect signs of inter-cat tension in their early stages,” the authors write. It is more likely to create a better prospect of preventing significant problems that could lead to euthanasia and/or euthanasia.”
The study was published on Scientific Reports…
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