Why do cats always land on their feet? Why does a cat fall on its paws. Falls from a great height

Since we are talking about falls, let's talk about how cats fall and why do cats land on their feet?

Is it true that cats always land on their feet?

It is widely believed that: firstly, cats constantly fall on their paws; secondly, cats are able to fall from any height and remain unharmed.
Alas, this does not always work out. A cat is not a bird, it does not know how to soar. She may well get severely injured when she falls, or even break to death, so do not try to conduct experiments.
But there is a part of the truth that cats tend to fall on their paws. These animals have a fairly well-formed vestibular apparatus, which allows them to navigate in flight (a legacy from when cats were unbridled and lived more in trees, hiding from large predators). If a cat has fallen from a hill, it will instantly determine which place is up and which is down, and will turn its paws to the ground. The problem is that she doesn't always have time to do it. For this reason, in some cases, the cat, having escaped from the hands, falls from the height of human growth and lands far from on its paws, but as it happens.

Falls from great heights.

As for falls from a very great height (above the seventh floor), in this case, the cat in some cases manages to do without serious injuries if it has time to relax, spread its paws and, turning into a real parachute, thereby slow down the fall. And still - the muscles of the neck in cats are not so developed as to hold the head at the moment of landing. Therefore, animals often get jaw damage when they fall.

You certainly understood earlier that you should not allow a cat to fall from a window or balcony. Glaze the balcony or tighten it with a net and in no case leave your pet alone in a room with an open window. Don't count on the cost - you can never tell when your family animal will want to catch a flying sparrow!

12.06.2017 11:05 544

Why do cats always land on their feet?

Since ancient times, cats have lived alongside humans. But despite this, they still remain a mystery to us. We still do not know much about our pets.

If you have a cat living at home, then of course you have seen more than once that it always lands on all its four paws. And it does not matter from what height and from what position the cat jumps or even falls. Do you know why your pet does this and how she does it?

The fact is that the vestibular apparatus (a sense organ that is present in all vertebrates and humans, which perceives changes in the position of the head and body in space, as well as the direction of movement), thanks to which cats so deftly change the position of their body in flight, is much better developed. than in other animals.

During the fall, the cat quickly and clearly twists its entire body: first the head, then the neck and torso, aligning them so that they are on the same level with the head, relative to the ground.

In addition, in flight, the animal first accelerates its rotation, pressing its paws and tail to the body, and only then, when it already assumes a position with its paws down, does it sharply move them to the side, stopping rotation.

As a result of such tricks, the fall speed is noticeably reduced, and the cat itself, parrying in the air, successfully lands on all its four paws. Moreover, at the moment of landing, the animal softens the force of impact on the ground as much as possible, putting forward relaxed paws.

And oddly enough, the greater the height of the fall, the easier it is for the cat to group its movements in the air and perform maneuvers with minimal risk of injury. Interestingly, the ability to "competent" landing during a fall begins to develop perfectly at the reflex level in kittens already from 3 to 4 weeks of age.

For a long time, scientists thought that it was the tail that helped the cat to align the position of the body in flight and served as a kind of “steering wheel”. However, after observing the falls of tailless cats, they realized that cats land equally well regardless of whether they have a tail or not. Thus, it turns out that the amazing elasticity of the spine and excellent flexibility help these animals to perform the necessary actions in the air in a matter of seconds.

Since the study of nature and the various reflexes of animals can become an indispensable material in the lives of people themselves, for some time there has even been a special science that studies the capabilities of cats in a fall - pasematology. This science, for example, allows scientists to develop various methods of orientation in space for astronauts in zero gravity.

As you can see, friends, man, despite the fact that he is at the highest stage of development, has a lot to learn from animals.

There is such a law - the law of conservation of angular momentum, on the basis of which scientists argue that it is not possible to create rotation from nothing. Simply put, due to internal forces alone, without support, the body cannot roll over in space.

Therefore, at first, the researchers believed that the cat is able to roll over, because it is repelled from the surface from which it falls, thereby setting itself the desired rotation. An animal cannot violate the laws of science! However, experiments have shown that the cat lands on its paws, even without being able to push off. The cat's secret remained undisclosed for a long time, until technology came to the rescue.

In 1894, French explorer Dr. Étienne Jules Marey took a series of photographs of a falling cat that helped unravel the secret of the cat's fall. It turns out that the cat rotates individual parts of the body in different directions; it bends, changes its “shape” and eventually flips over, keeping the total moment of rotation unchanged.

This is how you can describe the technique of turning a cat when falling from a height:

By bending the body to create different axes of rotation for the front and back of the body, the cat exposes its hind legs and draws in its front legs. She then twists the back of her body to one side and the front to the other. Opposite rotations cancel each other out, and the total moment of rotation in the fall remains zero. In this case, the front part turns a little more, due to the pressed paws.

Then the cat tightens its hind legs and exposes its front legs, performs a slight twist in the opposite direction, but still - the back and front parts of the body in different directions. This time, the rear part turns more strongly, thanks to the retracted legs.

Depending on the initial position of the body before the fall and its own flexibility, the cat can turn its paws down in one series of movements, or they need to be repeated several times.

Some sources claim that the cat turns around due to the rotation of the tail. Allegedly, the tail rotates in one direction, and the body in the other (again, keeping the initial moment of rotation unchanged). But observations have shown that tailless cats also
are able to turn in the air, which testifies in favor of the above described technique, where a flexible body and legs are involved, and the tail is not used.

Safely experiencing a fall from a height helps cats not only the ability to land on their paws, but also the special structure of their paws. Paws in cats, as a rule, are long, muscular, springy. They are able to greatly soften the impact on the ground.

Observing cats has helped scientists take a broader view of the laws of mechanics, as well as find useful applications of feline technology to develop techniques for astronauts to move in zero gravity.

Of course, the cat at the time of the fall does not perform any complex mathematical calculations. She does all these actions intuitively. http://www.33cats.ru/ This installation reflex begins to appear in kittens at the age of 3-4 weeks, and is fully developed by 7 weeks.

Why do cats get hurt when they fall?

Sometimes cats do not have enough time to roll over in the right direction. The minimum height required for a cat to turn around is from 30 cm. If the cat does not turn around, it can land on its back or on its side - places that are completely unsuitable for this. Thus, falls from a small height can be even more traumatic than from a height of several meters.

Another reason for accidents is that nature has endowed the cat with such a useful reflex for life in its natural habitat, and in a modern city this does not always save. The metropolis is too big a test for a cat! Apartment buildings are much taller than trees, and you can’t catch on plastic and metal like a branch.

In addition, cats that spend all their time in an apartment usually lead a sedentary lifestyle and are often even overweight, which drastically reduces their natural ability to survive. Ceteris paribus, where a wild muscular taut cat gets off with a slight fright, "Garfield" runs the risk of breaking into a cake!

Therefore, let's not flatter ourselves that the cat ALWAYS lands on its paws, but think about the safety of our furry friends. If you have a cat, then the windows should have nets, and the balcony should be glazed or always closed!

There is a belief that a buttered sandwich always lands buttered down, and fallen cats only land on all fours. However, those people who have dropped sandwiches with butter on the floor quite often, and were careful enough at the same time, may have noticed that this is far from always the case. In life, in general, everything often happens not as various beliefs describe. And this, among other things, applies to the most popular pet - cats.

In general, cats are not in vain famous for their dexterity and plasticity. They can effortlessly jump from a height that is many times their height, they can jump from one branch to another, and walking along a narrow fence is as natural for them as it is for us to walk along the sidewalk.

Such dexterity makes a great hunter out of a cat. Speaking about the hunting abilities of a cat and their agility, it would be useful to make a small comparison between cats that lead a solitary lifestyle and another super popular and powerful predator - the wolf. Unlike cats, a predator has a number of qualities that are adapted for more advanced hunting, and the most important among them is the ability to conduct organized, pack hunting. In addition, the wolf is distinguished by extraordinary endurance, which cannot be said about the cat family.

It would seem, what chances of survival can a cat living in the same area with wolves have?

However, as studies of paleontologists show, in those places where wolves and cats of comparable size once lived, wolves gradually disappeared, unable to withstand competition with these dexterous solitary predators. And not the last role in such success was played by feline dexterity, against which the wolf looks just like a real log.

What is the reason why a cat has such dexterity and the ability to perform such incredible tricks?

The secret of this is hidden in the structure of the cat's brain. The cat's inner ear contains one important organ which works like a gyroscope. We will not delve into its, I must say, difficult structure, limiting ourselves to the fact that this organ carefully monitors the slightest changes in the position of the cat's body in space, sending signals to those parts of the brain that are responsible for coordinating movements.

And all the same internal gyroscope allows a falling cat to instantly determine exactly where the earth is and turn around to it with its paws. This ability develops at the level of a reflex already in small kittens, starting at about the age of three to four weeks.

I must say that there is even a science that studies the nature of this reflex and its value for this particular biological species. The science of cat falls is called pasematology, and its representatives have already discovered quite a lot of things that have expanded our understanding of the abilities of cats. In particular, the researchers studied in detail the technique of cat falls. It has been found that when an animal that has fallen from a considerable height lands squarely on all fours, it greatly increases its chances of survival. And there are two main reasons for this.

First of all, it is worth noting that when a cat turns its paws to the ground, it spreads its limbs a little to the sides. Thus, the body area increases and, accordingly, air resistance increases. As a result, the fall is somewhat slowed down, as happens with a skydiver when opening a parachute.

In addition, scientists have proven that when a cat and a person fall from the same height, the cat's fall speed will be half as much. And not the last role in such a slow fall is played by the fact that the cat uses its “parachute instinct”.

The second is that when the cat lands on relaxed and forward paws, this significantly dampens the force of the blow. In view of this, it becomes clear how one famous kitten, who fell onto the concrete sidewalk from the balcony of the thirteenth floor, managed to escape with minor injuries.

This kitten just turned into a kind of small parachute. True, not all cats that have fallen from a height are so lucky, but the fact remains.

However, in cases where the cat has to fall from a small height, everything is not as good as in the cases described above, and the cat does not always manage to land as expected from it - on all four paws. As a rule, a misfire occurs when the fall time is too short for the cat to perform this maneuver. This can happen, for example, when a person releases a cat from his hands, if before that he held her with her back to the floor and paws up. Therefore, in such situations, people should be careful, knowing that a pet can be injured no less seriously than when falling from a height of several meters.

Cats have many abilities beyond the control of humans: they see in the dark, their sense of smell is 14 times sharper, and their hearing is striking in its high sensitivity. In addition, the specificity of the body structure explains why cats land on their feet. No other animal has a similar skill. This phenomenon is their unique gift.

Foot landing mechanism

Experiments with the fall of a cat were carried out two centuries ago by French researchers. They changed the height, released the cat and analyzed its movements. For a long time it was believed that the tail is responsible for landing on four legs, because it is he who is considered a kind of steering wheel. But later it turned out that even without a tail, a cat always lands on its paws.

Regardless of the position in which the fall begins, in a very short time, the cat's body turns and aligns with the ground. In more detail it looks like this:

• the head turns first, so the cat sees and evaluates the place where it will land;
• after that, along with the head, one line forms the whole body;
• She presses her front paws to her head;
• hind legs stretch as far as possible.

Fast and precise rotation of the body also comes at the expense of excellent flexibility. Unlike humans, the cat's spine consists of 30 links, which provide its inherent elasticity and grace. The role of a shock absorber in cats is performed by developed, strong muscles of the paws and soft pads on them. They dampen the force of impact during contact with the surface.

Does height matter?

Despite the fact that the instinct is developed in absolutely every cat, they do not always land on their paws when they fall. In this case, there is a certain obstacle, due to which the natural physiological process is disturbed. The reason for this may be too small or excessively high height.:

• If a cat falls from 20-30 cm from the ground, it simply does not have enough time to roll over onto its paws. As a result, she falls flat.
• Longer distances are different. The excellent abilities of the vestibular apparatus, thanks to which the cat orients itself in space and evaluates all chances, are not able to withstand the strongest blow.

The body weight of a cat is much less than the body area - this feature allows you to properly group. In humans, this ratio is much less than the inability to develop such a skill. An obstacle to proper landing in cats, in addition to inappropriate height, may be obesity, blindness, problems of the musculoskeletal system, etc.

Possible consequences

Independent experiments with cat abilities are fraught with dangerous consequences. You should not intentionally release the animal from a great height, otherwise, instead of a successful landing, disaster may happen in front of the owner's eyes:

• traumatic brain injury;
• ruptures of internal organs;
• fractures, dislocations;
• hematomas, lacerations;

Older animals often have problems with the musculoskeletal system, so for them a fall from a height can be fatal. But all negative circumstances are nothing more than an exception. Each cat, 3-4 weeks after birth, a priori knows how to land correctly.

Every person, at least once in a lifetime, asks the question - why do cats land on their paws? Despite the fact that this phenomenon is easily explained in terms of the physiology of the cat family, for most people this is nothing more than a unique and inimitable ability. Cats are amazing animals that will never cease to amaze and conquer humanity.