Reply to comment
evolutionary artifact
July 26, 2008 by Anonymous, 1 year 14 weeks ago
Comment id: 31264
Reply
About us
Science Blog was started in August 2002. It lives, breathes and eats press releases from research organizations around the globe. Most of what you read here are press releases from the outfits named in the stories themselves. Got a news story you think belongs here? Let's talk. The other half of the equation is blog posts from readers like you. So if you have an interest in science, please register and join others like you in an ongoing, vibrant dialog about what makes the world tick. Meantime, please take a minute to read our Privacy Policy and Site Disclaimer.Recommended
Andrew Sullivan Dan Sullivan Doug Arellanes Emmanuelle Richard Faith Sullivan Fred Bortz Heather Havrilesky Henry Copeland Kate Sullivan Ken Layne lagreenbean.com LAist.com Maggie Sullivan Matt Welch NewYorkology Opinion L.A. Ron Kaye Slashdot Steve Elzer & Family TheNewsroom.org Thor Garcia Tony Pierce Wonkette OlderThanks CNET for naming Science Blog one of your Blog 100!
I believe this may be just some instinctive artifact of cat evolution. In the wild, cats of course are carnivorous predators, and in a serangety setting must fool scavangers from stealing their hard earned meals. But house cats do not have any competition to disguise their food from, so this must just be some sort of behaivoral reflex which is left over from early evolutionary necessity.
I have also considered the possibility cats do this to sharpen their claws before digging into a traditionally lean meal.
For all we know this may just be some ritualistic dance or feline "prayer" to celebrate the meal, dont laugh, if humans could be so stupid i wouldnt put it to far behind a feline. Obviously the cat is not going to answer this question for us anytime soon, so i will stick with the first hypothesis, and its just a artifact in feline evolution.