2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21
A cat is an animal that is popular with many people. It is bred in private houses for catching rodents. In addition, it is turned on in apartments. This little affectionate and fluffy animal cheers up all households. Caring owners, of course, are concerned about the question of how the mental abilities of their beloved pet are arranged. For example, what kind of memory do cats have?
How does a cat's brain work?
If you believe experienced zoologists, then in all respects the cat's brain is exactly the same as the human. It differs only in size - 2 times smaller. Otherwise, they are similar. Cats also have gray matter in their heads, which is responsible for mental development, and neurons that control memory. But it still remains unclear what kind of memory cats have. It is worth looking into this in more detail.
Two kinds of memory
Cats have been subjected to many laboratory and real-life experiments to assess the mental abilities of an individual. During their implementation,it is revealed that she has two types of memory.
- Short-term memory, the duration of which is no more than 16 hours. During this time, the cat may find food it recently hid or a toy.
- Long-term memory that lasts a lifetime. For example, an individual remembers its former owners for a long time, and if it gets lost, then there is a high probability that it will still find its way home.
It is worth noting that cats, as well as for all living beings, are characterized by age-related changes. This means that young pets absorb information much better and retain it longer than older cats or cats.
About memory size
Zoologists and livestock breeders have been conducting experiments for a long time, trying to find out what kind of memory cats have and how long it lasts. They wanted to estimate the amount of memory, but, unfortunately, so far they have not been able to do this. What is it connected with? The fact is that in the course of scientific research it was not possible to recognize in which cases the animal performs actions based on its own memory, and when it does it according to its innate instinct.
But still, scientists are faced with the problem that it becomes incomprehensible how a cat remembers a lot of information if its brain is much smaller than that of a person. It was found that the animal's memory has a powerful "filter" that helps to filter out unnecessary information and remembers only the information necessary forexistence.
Learning Capacity
A caring owner is concerned not only with the question of what kind of memory cats have, but also whether it can be trained to increase the mental abilities of a pet. As zoologists assure, this is not necessary, since the mother teaches all the necessary skills to the kitten. When cohabiting with an adult in the same house, he will observe her and learn. If the kitten was weaned from its mother early, then it will still learn the skills necessary for life, but already at the level of its own instincts. If a person still needs to influence this natural process, then this can be done in several ways.
- Add more vitamins to your pet's diet.
- In addition to food, give natural products, in particular fish and meat.
- Independently conduct training, for example, rearranging a bowl or couch in a new place, and then check how quickly the individual will get used to new conditions.
- You can let the kitten out for a walk and see if he finds his way home, but at this time you need to carefully monitor him so that he does not get lost.
According to zoologists, the optimal age of an animal for memory development is 2-5 years.
Memory and aging
Studying the question of how much memory cats have, it is impossible not to touch on the issue of animal aging. Just like in humans, with age, the mental abilities of a cat are noticeably reduced. She begins to forget the way home, stops remembering where she isthere is a bowl and a tray. Unfortunately, this is a completely natural process that nothing can affect. It is only required to show maximum care for an adult pet and provide him with a decent old age.
Cats and people
Separately, it is worth talking about what kind of memory a cat has for people. Perhaps, it was on this topic that the largest number of experiments were conducted. The cat was given to the hands of a person, where she was for several hours. Then they launched into a room with a group of people, where the animal needed to find the person who had it in his arms. As it turned out, only a few managed to cope with this test.
Cats are really capable of remembering people, but only those with whom they have lived for several years. But in this case, the sense of smell works - cats remember only the smell of their owner.
Some interesting facts
In the UK, a cat named Mark went out of his house and got lost. For a long time he lived in a different place, but after 6 years of travel, he was able to remember the way home, in addition, he happily jumped on his lap to his beloved master.
A similar incident occurred in Rostov-on-Don. The young family moved to Lugansk for a permanent place of residence, but for unknown reasons, their cat disappeared along the way. The surprise of the neighbors knew no bounds when, five weeks later, they found him on the threshold of their home. Accordingly, speaking of memory in cats, it is worth noting that there are pets with special intellectual abilities.abilities.
Features of the intellect of a cat
We should also talk about other intellectual features of the cat.
- They are able to follow the verbal instructions of people, for example, to approach their call or, on the contrary, to run away when the command "shut".
- Can recognize the owner's mood.
- Each owner can notice that the pet even has a certain washing order, which he always adheres to.
- They easily get used to the daily routine, they know when it's time to play with their beloved owner, eat, sleep or walk.
So, what kind of memory do cats have? As it turned out, in general, it is from 16 hours. But its extent is still unknown. These are unique creatures that remember only the information that they need for a full life, weed out all unnecessary details.
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