SkyPigeon123
41427
1014
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May 7, 2025 8:33 AM
SkyPigeon123
41427
1014
36
itzu2jones31415
Wow!
nspriest233
Seems wrong as I am pretty sure cats don't see screens like we do
TexMexHex
Fuck your stolen repost. Unoriginal sumumabitch.
ShrokNil
The cats shall inherit the earth.
Targe0
Not everywhere. Humans are suppressing larger predators, which would hunt cats more freely if humans weren't around. Feral cat populations plummet when a larger predator population is in an area.
Debberz
I have extra coins. I’ll buy what you’re selling
Maverickaura
Cats do not have object permanence. They think the outside behind your front and back doors are separate outsides. This cat just happened to find a mouse after leaving the security room and a human not knowing better attributed more to its planning than it did.
farfie
If they didn't have object permanence they wouldn't hunt animals that go into burrows or understand when a toy has moved behind another object, like a door. They are aware of that. I've owned and lived with cats most of my life. But here's also a source on cat intelligence. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_intelligence
IakobZ
Seek and destroy
alittleglassvial
When I went on a 3month vacation I would video chat the cats and they understood I was someplace else, I think because they couldn’t smell me. I’ve heard similar from friends deployed. It’s not as strange as it sounds..
MeowstophelesTheeCatMonster
We needed this... FAVORITING! <3
Marikhen
We had this already though, at least as far back as February 12th, 2023.
friendsofsandwiches
is that at a jail?
Targe0
Hard to say, could just be a secure check point. Set-ups like that exist in a lot of high security facilities.
AnOceanOfStars
Only a matter of time before kitty sits in an orbital station, monitoring and laser-beaming rodents... hopefully just rodents...
languex
I'm amazed at how women have evolved to remember 5 year old conversations where you were wrong.
Whodimi
I've seen that episode of Tom & Jerry. Looked like a Hanna Barbera Jetsons crossover.
Bobby360
Poor rat
Targe0
He was just 2 days away from retirement.
SmoeAhsolse
*ratirement
t55mn7pdp74
If a dog was the size of a horse he would still lick you, play fetch, and snuggle and love you.
If a cat was the size of a horse he would kill you for sport
stiklikegiant
That's a rat.
Targe0
Was a rat, now it's lunch.
tinyCabbage
Fk off did that happen, look at the fking screen! You can barely see a car in those pixels, and you telling me he saw a mouse. GTFO
Targe0
The screens are likely better resolution in person than in the picture. As screens are notoriously hard to capture details with a picture of them. Especially older screens.
DrewK98
That rat would have been about 3 pixels on that screen. Catto recognized the color and movement.
ColonKoala
Those pictures prove this seemingly impossible scenario! /S
Targe0
And we know everything online is 100% factual all the time, every time. /s
nvoima
I have trouble believing this, which is why we need actual science instead of random online photos. It would be an interesting experiment to find out if animals can learn to associate actual places with ones on a screen. It could be something simple like snacks placed in some of the monitored rooms.
ethicalinfant
documentary when
thatwoodguy
I took on this new customer in west van who is a former NHL player, and I always got the feeling when I was at the place that I was being watched.
Sure enough there was a cat going from the front room when I pulled up to the side window by the bathroom and to the rear windows when I was in the backyard. The cat even tried to open the latch on the back patio door but the owner put a chair in front so it wouldn't open
WeaponizedJerk
Thinking that humans can't specialize is new kinds of stupid.
WeaponizedJerk
Also someone called "thekindlygrammarfairy" doesn't get to mispell "specialist"...
QuanticChaos
What's cool to me is some of my cats do this too, I have my security monitor over my computer monitors, so kitty will just chill in my lap watching the feed.
arrbos
Probably didn't happen that way, but catching a rat that size is very good for a cat!
IAmTheEarlyEvening
I'm gonna keep piling on, I'm afraid. My old barn cat once caught a hare! 3x his size (at least) and kicked him in the head all the way across the back yard, but Boots emerged victorious.
phuzz00
That's about the size of the one my cat caught last night. Although he didn't actually kill it, and instead let it run around my front room, lazy bugger.
IAmTheEarlyEvening
Well ya, if he kills it then he's got nothing to play with. Cats are sadists, bro!!
phuzz00
Update: came back from work the next day to find (possibly the same) mouse/rat in several pieces around my kitchen.
IAmTheEarlyEvening
Also checks out.
notsureofanything
That’s a fairly small rat. I’m New Orleans they are about the size as a 13 size American shoe (because that’s the size of one that ran over my husband foot). Not including tail lol
jesuisgur
My grandpa's lazy cat once caught and killed a muskrat that weighted 3x its own weight. The cat was all scratched up and bitten and bloody but it dragged its monster catch back inside the house ! Its proudest moment I'm sure.
DoctorWookie
Growing up we had a big cat that liked being outdoors except when it was cold. He would frequently bring us pack rat asses that he dumped on the porch. The sections he brought were literally just the hips and back legs. Those sections alone were about 3/4 his size. He was never injured that we could tell. But he was also a damn big cat and not fat at all. Mighty hunter indeed! But yeah, some cats are built for the hunt and will take on some big prey.
Shmitty85
Humanity are the greatest persistence hunters of all time. We got so good at it we got bored, created agriculture, and that why we pay taxes. The end.
Boyachi
I agree teaching animals to use the same tools we do when they are already at a predisposed advantage will further heighten their advantage. For another example, we can give a gorilla a sledgehammer and it will indeed increase the gorilla’s destructive force.
If you teach an eagle how to pilot an F-15 eagle it will be far deadlier.
idrinkcheapbeer
Working overnight is DC was really bad. Your work truck would get parked in these tiny back alleys that were overrun by giant rats who had absolutely zero fear of humans. On was up in a co-workers engine when he started his truck, Ripped it to pieces and the truck stank for months, no matter how many times he got the undercarriage washed.
ProppaGanda
Yeaaaaah it totally happened. And then everyone clapped.
stratospherecaster
Maybe the rat was in the same room as the monitor
lonosham
That cat’s name? Albert Meownstein.
johnxbear
This is driving me nuts I could swear i saw the video these pictures are taken from. You see the cat head bobbing between the monitors then jolts out the room to nab it. I can't find it anywhere now
FelonyRaptor
But the photos, aren't they irrefutable evidence?
OmegaRainbow360
I didn't see any red circles or arrows pointing at any sort of evidence :/ no red circle, no deal
FelonyRaptor
Oh yeah, you're right about that. My bad!
Zamerine
Sure Durr Durr animals can't possibly exhibit a shred of intelligence, only humanity is smart. Lolol
AusteninAlaska
A cat understanding live feed video would be insane. Animals don't see videos and think they are portals or windows to that place.
Most likely, the cat saw the video of a mouse, got excited about hunting a mouse, and left to go to the last place it knows mice are probably at....which is quite likely to happen to be the same place the live feed happens to be showing a mouse.
Zamerine
You are much too certain about what animals comprehend and see.
You might be right, but you also might not. You have no way to be as certain as your words make you appear.
Zamerine
Which, btw, is the problem with the general population when they read science articles. They think it's the word of god and that is said is absolute certainty while science by definition questions itself and everything.
Ignorance is bliss though so ... keep your beliefs, never question and enjoy life.
ProppaGanda
No, that's not what I said.
alantosai
ReykjavikRed
So you just kind of believe anything to fit in? Mate, that's pretty sad
AwetasticAdventures
I think their point is the story is interesting and entertaining to a degree, despite being fake.
johnxbear
So you just kinda believe it's fake to fit in? Mate, that's pretty sad
ReykjavikRed
I believe it's fake, because, you know, it kind of obviously is?
Larktonguesinadicecup
Why wouldn't a cat be able to do this? I would expect one to. It's not something that requires any deep understanding of anything beyond "I recognize that location".
johnxbear
What makes it so "kinda obvious?" Other than you just seeing everyone else say it?
HighMagosSquidward
I think it's a bias to consider humans generalists. Of course we see ourselves as generalists. Birds wouldn't see us that way.
itsameeeee
what is even more impressing about this is the cat understanding the concept of screen showing a place not behind the screen
imakebuns
This. My cat runs around an entire wall when he loses track of a bug, thinking it went to the other side of wall through the wall. He isn't winning any chess games. Lol
casbott
WhoHim
I would believe this is possible if it were trained to do this. But I have a very difficult time believing it figured it out on its own
EstoyPoopi
What's even more impressive is that you think this is true.
flavivsaetivs
Yeah I've had cats which were smart enough to do this, and then others who were special little muffins.
Nightcaste
My dog looks behind the tv if there's a dog on TV.
ReykjavikRed
Cats can't pass the mirror test, yet are capable of this level of abstract thinking? Yeah, nah mate.
missboohiss
Cats understand windows so I don’t think the difference to them is as big as you might expect. My cat can look down into the backyard, see something, and run downstairs to get it.
Larktonguesinadicecup
This is literally all that's happening here. The cat is looking out of a window. It doesn't have to have some deep abstract understanding to see an area it knows and see a mouse there and then go to that area. It's probably a bit confused why the window isn't where it should be, but it's learned that it's a real window because every time it shows something, that something does in fact show up at that location.
RooGryphon
i need science to test this theory.... has this study been done before?
SalmonTheWise
What's even more impressive is that it's an orange cat.
maday1br
Right? THAT'S the story here; an animal understood a technology that could not be explained to it in its own terms.
LittleAzie
But at the same time, I could believe this happening too if it recognized the location on the monitor and has figured out the flow of motion through people generally walking through the building. Cats are generally 3d problem solvers when it comes to stalking and ambushing, and I could see one easily adapting this way. But yeah, not sure as others put it, the two pictures are evidence that this happened.
CarpeMofo
It also means the cat has some form of a 3D representation of the area in it's head which would make sense. I wouldn't be surprised if it actually happened. It would be interesting to experiment with it.
LittleAzie
Consider this: When my cats get out, they can find home easily enough and while I know scent plays a part in this, so does visuals and knowing where it is versus where they travelled. I will not discount recognition of areas, because I know they can do that. Note: Both of my cats were strays that adopted us, and enjoy darting out the door without permission to explore the 100-acre plot of land. We are building a catio soon so they can get outside in a more controlled space.
eggmuffin
It's incredible. As in not credible.
Larktonguesinadicecup
I mean if it's a live picture of a perspective of an environment that the cat is completely used to why wouldn't it understand? It's like oh that's the chair and that weird little thing on the wall I know where that's at there's a mouse there. It's not like the cat knows what the technology displaying it is or why it just recognizes the place and it's like oh that's a place there's a mouse.n
ElbowDeepInAPoliceState
Animals (and also babies and toddlers) brains do not function as ours do; they lack a lot of the higher brain functions. That the cat is capable of understanding that the monitor is displaying an area and is not an area in and of itself seems unlikely to me
Larktonguesinadicecup
I don't think the cat has any deeper understanding of why that area is visible there. they don't understand the technology or even the concept, they just see the location and they know what the location is, and they know there's a mouse there. I think we're overthinking it. It's no more complicated than my cat running to his bowl when I hold up a can of his food. He sees a picture and he knows it's relevant to another location.
Glalev
There's variations from cat to cat, like with people to people. Some cats are absolute morons, others are way higher on the scale than most. This kind of understanding also probably takes a fair bit of time and I imagine it took years for the cat to figure it out. Heck, it might just be a case of 'cat sees mouse on screen, knows mouse is out there SOMEWHERE, goes looking, eventually finds it'
Phoelixx
I’d say this. Maybe the cat spent years watching their owners appear on screen then again a couple seconds later somewhere and eventually put it together.
eggmuffin
It's not a question of the relative intelligence of individuals. It's a question of brain architecture. It's a question of whether or not their brains are equipped with the structures that enable them to make the connection between a thing and a representation of that thing.
I know that research to investigate that question has been performed with many species of animals, but I don't think there's a field consensus yet in regards to the domestic cat.
OrThatsWhatTheySayAnyway
No different to a high window the cat can't get through from the cats perspective.
They will have to turn around, jump down and away and travel the maze of corridor, staircase and rooms to get to the cat flap, and then work their way around to whatever might have caught their interest enough to make the trip worth the effort.
ElbowDeepInAPoliceState
There's a lack of physical connectivess (for lack of a better term) that is present in your high window example. From what I've seen of cats attacking images on TVs or attempting to pounce at things on the other side of a window I'm remaining skeptical of their ability to make the association, unless there's research on the subject of cats and their ability to make those complex associations
OrThatsWhatTheySayAnyway
There's a difference between a film/documentary cutting in and out with unrecognisable scenery and landscapes, and objects onscreen coming at the camera, and a surveillance cam situated close by a perch they already use.
Besides you've said it yourself. They will impulse pounce on things on the screen, just as they will do at an insect on the window. There is precedent, something distant in a garden, they will navigate around to get to it, they don't need to reason a complex understanding.
ColonKoala
Lol gonna need a video for this ... Cause you're right its almost impossible to believe.
Showing a cat look at a screen then with a mouse in its mouth doesn't really prove this giant leap
azarza
outdoor hunting cats, i would believe it
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azarza
cats have really good memory and reasoning skills.. as i said, the hunting cats get super smart and with what is on the screen, ie no red, obvious landmarks, then movement? i can definitely see a cognitive jump like this
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frozenlake247
It’s really not all that different than the idea of sitting on a high ledge over a valley or a high branch in a tree. In either case if that cat can’t jump down and approach maintaining line of sight then it needs to be able to identify terrain features in relation to the prey and approach stealthily from memory.
In the cats mind it likely assumes it’s looking at various interconnected rooms from above through a window and just running to the room.
maddeninglemon
I mean it's not totally impossible. I could see a cat making the connection between a place they've seen in the physical world nearby and a place that looks basically the same on a screen. Obviously 3 photos on the internet don't a proof make, but I also wouldn't be willing to bet against it.
Mckrau
Cats don't map spaces exactly as we do, they link places in their head as 'from here I can get here or there', using reference points but not so much a dimensional mental map. They don't abstract distances or directions (unlike mice!) It tracks that a cat can recognize reference points on a screen, see prey near one of those points and move there to catch the prey.
AtmaDarkwolf
Same concept as a cat understanding a mirror. Or rather, similar. They (some anyways) understand it is a reflection of themselves(and the room behind them) and can grasp that what they see is 'them' - but even those few who can recognize this will take time to understand it. I can get behind the idea of a cat figuring out that the images on the screen are 'reflections' of other places they have seen, but they would need a similar vantage point to understand the references.
Kbantar
We had a cat that used our mirror to "hunt" us. So she understood it allowed seeing an otherwise invisible area. But that's still quite different to CCTV.
AtmaDarkwolf
is why they would need guidemarks like.. vantage. IE they would have to be up around where camera is to 'understand' the visuals they see(IE they would not recognize a room with camera up high in corner if they have no reference of mind other than ground level. They would have to be able to 'match' the image from being up in said corner as the camera to recognize the room, and know to 'go to that spot that matches the one in my mind' if that makes sense.
slevinkelevra
Same thought here but then I was reminded just how clever my cat is, using the reflection in the windows and knowing to adjust the mirror effect (sides switched). Also, she used to get her brother to open doors for her
Z0op
Yah im gonna go call bs on this, it would be pretty big news imo if a cat actually understood that the flat images are live images of locations and knows where they are. Especially figuring it out on their own.
I wouldnt say impossible but highly improbable
Larktonguesinadicecup
I would be surprised to hear that a cat *couldn't* do this. It's just a window; they don't have or need any higher understanding of how it works beyond observing that it does.
TealcPI
This 👆 Cats can be very intelligent, one of mine I would put in that category (the other is very special), but I can't see them correlating this. If it happened, I would put it down to coincidence.
sloomoo
LongCommentChainAppreciator
Mark Twain didn't live in the age of shitter, where certain people believe everything they read online
zafner
Just say Twitter
I personally believe that if we do this it will make him madder
Aurentis
Yeah, I have had several cats and while I certainly view this as within the realm of possibility as they can be startlingly intelligent in unexpected ways, they can also be breathtakingly stupid in every other way.
I've seen my little dude can flummoxed by a loose Post-It.
I've also seen them learn how to open bathroom drawers to get at hair ties, and use mirrors to stalk toy mice around corners.
Could be true. Fun to imagine.
airwoman
Usually if a cat is fucking around with a loose post-it, it's more likely that it is doing something like stimming with this random object that moves in interesting ways. But idk what your cat did to make you think he was actually flummoxed by the post-it so I might be wrong.
Aurentis
Poked it, then shook it off his paw a few times. Then sat on it, and experienced violent spring-loaded panic that sent him - and the grocery list stuck to his ass - careening across the room in terror.
Badprenup
Hell, even them recognizing a mouse at all on grainy low-quality CCTV footage would be amazing. Even if you fullscreen one feed on that monitor the mouse is going to show up as a grainy blob less than a quarter inch long.
LusciousLucius
That's fair, but my cat will scream at a gnat on the ceiling for hours. It's not being a mouse that's a crime, it's being anything that's smaller than them and daring to move. Grainy blobs a quarter inch long still fit the bill.