So how do cats view humans exactly?
Tell me honestly you have wondered about this haven’t you.
You are sitting there on your porch thinking about stuff and you cat comes and sits in front of you.
Starts slow blinking at you?
People say that’s a cat’s way of saying I love you. And you are ok with it.
But somewhere within you are really curious as to how do our feline kids look at us.
The question is natural and something every cat owner asks given the mysterious nature of cats.
In this post, I will to the extent of my research and knowledge help you understand how do cats view humans.
I mean of course one cannot be too sure about how cats view us. You have to be a cat to know that completely.
But believe me or not there have been researches and evidence-based proofs depicting to a great degree of certainty as to what exactly goes in a cat’s mind when she is looking at you.
So, without any further ado let’s take a deep dive into understanding,
How Do Cats View Humans And The World Around Them?
Cats may have chosen to get domesticated some say around 4000 years back, when overpopulation of rodents may have driven the Egyptians to bow down to feline Gods.
Ever since then humans as fickle with love as we are, have had their hearts stolen by these oddly cute creatures.
And as time would have it today there are more than 80 millions cats in United States.
It is estimated that there are around 3 cats for every dog on this planet.
I am dearly waiting for dawn of the planet of the cats movie. It’s coming I am telling you.
One would expect since we have been with them for so long we must know everything about them. No sir, we don’t.
And we are fascinated by Aliens. I mean come on.
One of the leading experts in cat behaviour, , after years of research has come to the conclusion that cats don’t see us the way dogs do.
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I mean. I love your work and the effort you have put in John. But dearie me, I would have told you that after watching one episode of My cats from hell by Jackson Galaxy.
There were this couple who because they had a history of having dogs decided to get a cat.
And for some reason they were trying to play with their cat the way one would play with their dog. By roughing him up and forcing her to roll on the floor.
I was like Oh my God, that’s why we are all so stupid.
We don’t know how to deal with cats and dogs and we are politicians. No wonder why the world is the way it is.
Anyways, back to the point.
Let’s make this as clear as crystal.
Don’t Do The Mistake Of Thinking Cats See Us The Same Way Dogs Do.
Here is what John had to say about this.
It’s pretty clear that Dogs view their humans or humans in general as someone different than themselves.
As soon as Dogs are aware of the fact that they are in the vicinity of humans they actually change their behaviour.
The very way dogs play with humans is very different than how dogs play among themselves.
has gone through elaborate process of observing cat behaviours in individual, shelter-based and feral colony capacities.
His research includes analysing cat behaviours when they play with toys, relationship with their owners to holding out surveys on how cat parents perceive their cats.
So, I may have learnt a lot from Jackson Galaxy’s videos, it is his words apart from mine that you can blindly trust. 😛
Studies clearly mark out that cats eyes don’t see us as separates entities in which they envision to socialize with us.
They are well aware of the fact that we are bigger and stronger than them. But it seems that they haven’t used this as a cue to modify their behaviour.
Because raising their tails up, trying to knead us, rubbing their heads and bodies against us, and grooming us is precisely the behaviour cats express around other cats.
Hey, wait a minute does that means, we are just big cats for them who tend to have hairs in weird patchy places.
As opposed to us, we pinnacle of evolution. The cats.
Do Cats Think We Are Just Big Stupid Cats?
Well, no one can tell for sure to be honest.
But here is what’s true.
They most definitely think we are clumsy. For instance, they cats never trip over people, we trip over our cats all the time.
John in his book says, that cats view their humans as someone indistinguishable from how they view other cats.
But he says, they don’t necessarily see us as being dumb and stupid.
See and this is my addition to what he is saying, who is stupid and who is not stupid is just our idea, isn’t it?
Who we call stupid is stupid only because we think we are smart.
Hmm, are we smart?
The point being cats only look as if they are planning something against us, maybe they don’t even care.
They are so innocent that they can observe us without any reason (when their stomach is full of course) and maybe that freaks us out.
What About Colours? How Do Cats View Humans In Terms Of Colour Perception?
That’s actually a really great question.
Yes, in technical terms cat can indeed see colours. But it’s more likely that cats see humans and everything around us in a different light than what humans do.
Cats eyes have very few cones in their retina which respond to red light.
This means their world most likely appears a combination of blue, grey and yellow.
The colours red and green are almost impossible for cats to tell apart, which may make us wonder and rightly so.
Has nature done some injustice to them, that we can see some colours and they can’t.
Well, for this my friend I want you to think about this for a moment.
We know this for a fact that our eyes are capable of perceiving only a small part or band of waves we call visible spectrum.
Anything above or beyond the spectrum we cannot perceive.
The same thing goes with cats eyes too I guess.
What perceptions a human, a cat a dog or even a snail needs to survive is given by nature.
So its not injustice I think, its more like precision you see.
For example, we can’t smell as powerfully as dogs nor can we see with as much precision as a hawk or an eagle.
But what we have is sufficient. So its like that.
Just felt the need to put it out there.
To justify my point look at this research that indicates that cats and certain other mammals can see colors beyond the ultraviolet end of spectrum.
These colors are visible to human eyes only under a black light.
Given the fact that many elements that we know of and don’t know of possess UV coloration, it may just be possible that cats may not view human world the way we do but their world may be just as or even more vivid than humans.
Oh how it must feel to be a cat?
See, now I feel like writing a poem on being a cat. Don’t worry. I won’t.
I know my limits. Don’t want to scare you off.
Can Cats View Humans In Terms of Their Uniqueness?
Here is the interesting part.
With respect to some studies that were conducted regarding pattern and visual recognition in pets, either cats can’t tell faces of humans apart or they just don’t bother how we look like.
A study was conducted at the University Of Texas at Dallas and Pennsylvania State University in 2005 to observe object and pattern recognition and discernment.
On the basis of reward behaviour cats and dogs were taught to choose between different images.
When the cats were given the option to choose between two images, each containing the images of their handler or a complete stranger.
The cats chose their handler only about 50 percent of the time.
When shown the images of other cats, 90.7 percent of the time cats chose the image of a familiar cat over a stranger cat.
Similarly, when given the option of choosing between ecosystems, cats recognized familiar environment 85.8 percent of the time.
So, this study proves that although cats are very visually very perceptive, they are just not good at discerning faces.
So how do cats view humans then? I mean they clearly recognize humans right?
Yes, yes don’t freak out darling. Your cat does recognize you.
She isn’t just sitting their plotting how to get the next meal out of you.
Although many times it may seem like that.
Cats do indeed recognize their humans just not in the same way as us.
Instead of using facial recognition, cats use their other sensory capacities like the sense of smell, how we feel, the intensity of our persona(our personal energy), our voice to know who we are.
This Research from the University Of Tokyo provides evidence that our cats indeed do recognize us, if you still had your doubts.
In yet another research, cats names were called out playing recordings of their owners and total strangers and most of the times cats responded very strongly to their owners voice.
So What Can We Conclude About How Do Cats View Humans And Their Environment?
See here is the thing, cats and animals in general are strictly territorial beings.
When you extrapolate this nature in association with humans without any doubt cats do view humans as their own if they happen to include you in their borders or territory.
A far as the question of how do cats view humans is considered, see with respect to all the already conducted research and researches that will be conducted in the future.
We may actually never know exactly how cats view humans but we can surely say they understand our communication of compassion.
Every living creature doesn’t matter how they look like understands this.
And I am not just saying this, you in your life should have experienced this so many times.
So yeah, may be cats don’t see our faces the way we think we do or may not recognize our faces or our personality the way we think they should do.
But cats sure do see us as their own.
Have you ever had your cat bring dead mouse or birds to you?
Do you know why she does that.
The most likely reason for this is that they see you as a part of their family, and they probably think you are clumsy and incapable of taking care of yourselves so they are taking the responsibility of taking care of you.
If that isn’t love.
I don’t know what is.
Take care of yourselves and I will see you in the next one.
Tada!
Wow! good content.I always wondered How Cats see Humans .. hehe
Thanks for the post
Best
Div
You are welcome Div 🙂