"Cats are liquid" is only partially true?! Research finds they are "solid in the vertical direction"

Cats naturally prefer narrow spaces. They can instantly judge if their body will fit and then slip right in. Their flexibility is often described as "cats are liquid," a phrase that has become widely known on social media.

So, can cats really slip into any gap? A study published in September 2024 suggests that this statement might not be entirely accurate.

Péter Pongrácz, an ethologist at Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary, studied 30 domestic cats. He placed cardboard panels at the entrance of their homes, gradually narrowing the opening size, and recorded how the cats reacted. The experiment had two conditions: "a hole with fixed width and decreasing height" and "a hole with fixed height and decreasing width."

The results suggested that "cats are liquid" is not entirely true.

As the height decreased, 22 out of 30 cats stopped before the narrowest hole. Some slowed down, sat down, or turned back. Some stared at the hole intently before cautiously tilting their bodies and entering. However, when the width narrowed, most cats did not hesitate. No matter how thin the slit became, they twisted their bodies and slipped through. Only 8 out of 30 cats showed hesitation.

From this asymmetrical response, Pongrácz concluded that cats have a sense of "their body's height" and use this sense to pre-judge whether they can enter a space. On the other hand, since they can manage width by twisting their bodies, there's no need to stop and check. This makes sense in a wild context. If a cat enters a low hole headfirst and gets stuck, there's no escape. Even if a predator approaches from behind, they can't even twist their body. Therefore, in front of a "low hole," their body naturally becomes cautious. It's a very quiet judgment ingrained through evolution.

Figure: Two variations of gradually narrowing openings

Each action of a cat carries traces of a long evolution. Thinking this way might change how we perceive our time living with them.

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*Reference: Pongrácz, P. Cats are (almost) liquid!—Cats selectively rely on body size awareness when negotiating short openings. iScience, 2024. DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.110799