Mary Allen
Cats are generally thought to be highly intelligent, but is that really the case? And how can you tell how smart velvet paws really are?
Finding out about a cat’s intelligence is not one of the easiest of tasks. This is mainly because cats simply have little interest in having their cunning examined. Unlike apes, cats simply lack the will to participate in experiments. However, every now and then a study succeeds. And a lot can also be seen from the behavior of house tigers.
Cats Have a Good Memory & High Ability to Learn
Cats’ impressive memory skills show that velvet paws are very intelligent. Whether it’s finding the litter box quickly, remembering feeding times, or estimating territory – cats remember things that other animals would quickly forget. Cats are also rightly known to be highly trainable, often as evidenced by the fact that they know exactly how to make sure their needs are met. A velvet paw often knows exactly which sounds to use to encourage its owner to feed, stroke or play.
In addition, a kitty understands many things in its environment – even if people may not want to admit it. For example, cats quickly recognize that the red dot of a laser pointer does not come from the wall but from the device in the owner’s hand. It knows: the owner takes the device in hand, so play starts right away. All this indicates that cats understand complex relationships.
Curious & Willing to Imitate Things
The property of curiosity also speaks for a high level of intelligence. Cats love to explore, rummage and discover – activities that less intelligent animals tend to refrain from and instead prefer to limit themselves to eating and sleeping.
Another argument for the high level of intelligence of cats: house tigers imitate actions impressively well, which falls within the range of the ability to learn described above. For example, cats can open doors because they have previously observed how people use doorknobs.
Lack of Emotional Intelligence – are Cats Less Empathetic?
Empathy is also related in some way to intelligence. While there are exceptions, cats generally do worse than dogs, for example, when it comes to understanding human emotions. In fact, cats are a little lacking in empathy. However, it is unclear whether this could simply be due to the fact that cats have little or no interest in human feelings and often deliberately ignore them.