In order to study cat behavior, I refer to many different books about cat behavior, I have cut out the useful parts and put them in this blog.
猫语大辞典
今泉忠明. 猫语大辞典. 北京联合出版公司, 2016.
Tadaaki Imaizumi. A Dictionary of Cat Language. Beijing United Publishing Company, 2016.
This picture shows the shape and appearance of a cat’s ears in different moods.
The emotions expressed by the cat’s ears in the four pictures above are fear, vigilance, calmness, and curiosity.
Fear: Shows fear when the cat’s ears are drooping and drooping. It also means to make the other party feel weak and not hurt.
vigilance: When the cat’s ears are turned sideways, it looks angry and alert. Maybe they are preparing to attack the opponent.
Calmness: When the cat is in a relaxed state, the ears are facing forward, and the back of the ears can be seen slightly outward. This is the most relaxed state of the cat.
Curiosity: When the cat’s ears are raised straight up and facing forward, it is focused on observing things of interest, and the back of the ears cannot be seen at this time.
This picture shows the shape and appearance of a cat’s beard in different moods.
The emotions expressed by the cat’s whiskers in the four pictures above are curiosity and calm.
This picture shows the shape and appearance of a cat’s tail in different moods.
This part is about cats licking their own bodies when something fails.
For example, when you want to jump to a certain height, but unfortunately stumble. As if to confuse the master’s sight, he kept licking his own hair. But even in what appears to be an attempt to hide its failure, cats don’t really care about human eyes. As I said before, licking hair has the effect of calming the mind. The cat licked the fur in order to appease his panicked heart due to failure. In this case the licking time is very short and will end soon.
猫咪不是故意的图解全阶段养猫宝典
[1]浅井亮太, and 林佩蓉. “《猫咪不是故意的》.” 宠物世界：猫迷 8(2017):2.
[1] Ryota Asai, and Lin Peirong. “The Cat Wasn’t Intentional.” Pet World: Cat Fans 8(2017):2.
This picture shows the shape and appearance of a cat’s tail in different moods.
The emotions expressed by the cat’s tail in the above pictures from left to right and top to bottom are coquettish, play with me, relax, be in high spirits, attack, restless, intimidate, fear, don’t attack me.
coquettish: For intimate objects such as female cats, cats will snap their tails up.
play with me: In this case the cat’s tail will turn into an inverted U shape. If you are facing the enemy, it will be intimidating.
relax: When you are relaxed and in a good mood, your cat’s tail will swing slowly and floatingly.
be in high spirits: Cats twitch the tip of their tails slightly when they find something that seems interesting.
Attack: When the cat is ready to swoosh down on its prey, it will lower its body and wag its tail.
restless: When the cat’s tail flaps quickly from side to side, it means that it is in a bad mood.
intimidate: When the cat faces enemies and fears, it will swell its fur upside down, making it look bigger.
Fear: When the cat feels fear, it will move its tail closer to the body to shrink the body.
don’t attack me: Help the cat tuck its tail between its back feet to indicate that it is ready to avoid an attack.
Some behaviors of cats, such as hunting instinct.
This section is about cats’ distraction behavior.
When scolding the cat or when the cat thinks it has done something wrong, it sometimes acts like licking or grinding its paws. This is a transfer behavior to relieve tension or anxiety and to calm down. This behavior can help calm your cat’s agitated emotions from being scolded.
全圖解貓咪行為學
單熙汝. 全圖解貓咪行為學. 商周出版, 2018.
Shan Xiru. Completely Illustrated Cat Behavior. Shang Zhou Publishing, 2018.
Some behaviors of cats, such as hunting instinct.
This section is about the hunting nature of cats. Hunting is a natural and a mission for cats. Even if they are raised to obtain food without hunting, they still need to hunt. And in addition to getting food, there is another great significance for cats, which is to release stress and build self-confidence.
These pages detail cat frustration and the behavioral problems it causes.
When the cat encounters prey (birds, insects, etc.), it will start hunting, and if it fails, it will transfer the target. If the target is transferred correctly, to other flies and mosquitoes, it will build confidence and vent stress. However, if the cat’s target is wrongly transferred, such as transferring the target to the owner or other pets, and it is not corrected for a long time, there will be behavioral problems.
Some frustration for cats.
This picture shows the shape and appearance of a cat’s ears in different moods.
This picture shows the shape and appearance of a cat’s tail in different moods.
References and links
Akatani, J., Miyata, H., Kanda, K. et al. Differential effects of hindlimb peripheral afferents on motoneurons innervating different parts of longissimus muscle in cats. Exp Brain Res 157, 111–116 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-003-1825-6
The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between the synaptic pattern from hindlimb afferents and the area innervated by motoneurons. ——These findings indicate that the effects of afferent inputs from the hindlimbs are related to motoneuron type or the area innervated by the motoneurons.
Sara J. Shettleworth,
Animal cognition and animal behaviour,
Animal Behaviour,
Volume 61, Issue 2,
2001,
Pages 277-286,
ISSN 0003-3472,
https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.2000.1606.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347200916063)
Abstract: Cognitive processes such as perception, learning, memory and decision making play an important role in mate choice, foraging and many other behaviours. In this review, I summarize a few key ideas about animal cognition developed in a recent book (Shettleworth 1998, Cognition, Evolution and Behaviour) and briefly review some areas in which interdisciplinary research on animal cognition is currently proving especially productive. Cognition, broadly defined, includes all ways in which animals take in information through the senses, process, retain and decide to act on it. Studying animal cognition does not entail any particular position on whether or to what degree animals are conscious. Neither does it entail rejecting behaviourism in that one of the greatest challenges in studing animal cognition is to formulate clear behavioural criteria for inferring specific mental processes. Tests of whether or not apparently goal-directed behaviour is controlled by a representation of its goal, episodic-like memory in birds, and deceptive behaviour in monkeys provide examples. Functional modelling has been integrated with analyses of cognitive mechanisms in a number of areas, including studies of communication, models of how predator learning and attention affect the evolution of conspicuous and cryptic prey, tests of the relationship betweeen ecological demands on spatial cognition and brain evolution, and in research on social learning. Rather than a ‘new field’ of cognitive ecology, such interdisciplinary research on animal cognition exemplifies a revival of interest in proximate mechanisms of behaviour.
Naomi Wada, Kenro Kanda,
Trunk movements and EMG activity in the cat: level versus upslope walking,
Progress in Brain Research,
Elsevier,
Volume 143,
2004,
Pages 173-181,
ISSN 0079-6123,
ISBN 9780444513892,
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6123(03)43017-3.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0079612303430173)
Abstract: This chapter addresses the neural control of spinal-column behavior during locomotion. Kinematic and EMG measurements were obtained from the adult cat during its level and upslope treadmill walking. Increasing the grade of upslope walking augmented horizontal movements of the spinal column and decreased its lateral movements. In conjunction, there were significant increases in the amplitude, duration, and pattern of EMG bursts in relevant spinal column musculature. During even steeper upslope walking, three EMG bursts were evident. They were phase-locked to the outward, downward and backward movements of the spinal column, respectively. Our results suggest that the component of the locomotor pattern generator that produces rhythmical spinal column movements must generate a wide variety of EMG bursts in spinal column muscles, as dependent in part on sensory input from the spinal column and its musculature.
http://www.animalcognition.org
https://petozy.com/blogs/about-cats/how-smart-are-cats-instinct-and-intelligence-in-cats
Vitale Shreve, K.R., Udell, M.A.R. What’s inside your cat’s head? A review of cat (Felis silvestris catus) cognition research past, present and future. Anim Cogn 18, 1195–1206 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-015-0897-6
Vitale Shreve, K.R., and M.A.R. Udell. 2015. What’s inside your cat’s head? A review of cat