This Japanese cat jumps nearly 2 meters (196 cm, or about 6.5 feet) to retrieve a toy. Its grace is ineffable; its athleticism amazing. A dog couldn’t do this, or, if it could, it would look dumb.
NOTE: The music is extremely annoying; you may want to mute your computer. And perhaps a Japanese-speaking reader can decipher the opening information.
Notice how the kitteh begins its characteristic tail-and-hindquarter rotation as soon as it strikes the prey, ensuring that the cat lands on its feet.
27 Comments
The experiment set too low a bar because the ceiling was too low. Looks like the cat had some gas left in the tank.
Not only athletic but good-looking too. He’s a very handsome kitteh.
My neighbour’s cat has been known to chase bats. But I haven’t witnessed him, myself, so I can’t say how high he goes.
Baihu? Izzdat chew? What’re you doing starring in foreign-language films without telling me ’bout it?
b&
The uploader jamuomii’s video listing page is HERE
Cute overload warning:- There are 15 videos of that same beautiful kitten/cat. I especially enjoyed the three earliest ones from a year ago ~ notably the one where it arches its back to square up to the “intruder cat” in the floor mirror.
Gorgeous animal ~ far more noble & athletic than Maru the fat cat 🙂
Ah — yes. Beautiful cat, but definitely not Baihu. Baihu is smart enough to pass the mirror test, even as classically defined.
b&
Presumably for your own health you dope Baihu’s food prior to applying rouge to his/her face?
[I assume that’s what you mean when you refer to the classically defined mirror test]
No rouge.
Cats don’t pay attention to visible dirt on either their own bodies or those of other cats, so using dirt for the mirror test is meaningless.
When Baihu first came in from the outside, he reacted to the floor mirror, but with wary curiosity, not as if he thought that it was another cat. That passed quickly and he soon ignored the mirror.
Then, after he…ah…got tutored and came home with the Cone of Shame (but the floppy blue fabric version), he paid a lot of attention to himself in the mirror — but, again, not as if it were a challenger, and only for a little while.
Tamar, who was still with us at the time, was much cowed by Baihu’s insta-mane. Before, she was much quicker to show aggression towards Baihu.
So, to any animal behaviorists out there, that’s what I’d suggest: tailor the visual cue to something that actually has significance to the species. Horses communicate a lot with their ears, so maybe something that visibly changes the shape of a horse’s ears would do the trick. Find a bird with sexual dimorphism limited to cranial plumage, and give it a cosmetic sex change. That sort of thing.
Cheers,
b&
Enjoyable & interesting reply [I checked out your links 🙂 ]
As a thank you here’s a great Beatles dress rehearsal with the boys coping rather well [harmony-wise] despite the screaming girlies. A superbly involved & enthusiastic audience in pre-“awsome”-speak U.S.A. Better in many ways to the broadcast version although that’s pretty good too.
Thanks for that! I’m again struck how Ringo is the most rock-solid reliable drummer I’ve ever heard. Coming from a trumpet player, that actually means something….
b&
That struck me too. I especially like his backing on A Day In The Life.
I didn’t know that about horses. Thank you for mentioning it; I’m gonna go study up on that now!
I’m not an expert on horses, but I do know enough about them to know that they use their ears to communicate in similar ways as cats do.
If you uncover anything especially interesting, be sure to report back….
b&
“Insta-mane.” Clever!
Hmm, we have a feline-attacking cat…
Give it a try by putting one on the weakest attack-ee. You might be surprised at the change in social dynamics….
b&
I’ll have to look into the “floppy, fabric” version.
They sent me home with mine after Baihu’s surgery, but I think I donated it to the local shelter when I did the housecleaning in preparation for the big move from the apartment to the house.
I’m pretty sure you can find them at any sizable pet supplies store, and I’d be astounded if Amazon doesn’t carry them.
Pay attention to size, of course….
Cheers,
b&
OK, but have you ever seen a cat chase down a hard-thrown frisbee from an even start and catch it in midair?
The text at the beginning of the video says:
“It is said that cats have the ability to jump 5 times as high as the length of their body. Since the average cat is about 30 cm, this translates to roughly 150 cm. (For reference, Savannah Cats, which can jump over 2 meters, are over 40 cm in length.)”
According to Susan Orlean, author of “Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend,” he could jump over a 12 ft. wall. How does that compare with the kitty?
Well, I found our old cat in the back garden one day looking slightly the worse for wear. To get into the back garden, she had to climb over either one or two 8ft brick walls.
By “worse for wear” I mean various cuts and abrasions, pulled and twisted muscles, a broken rear leg and mud prints of a car tyre over said leg.
Somehow, I doubt that Jackie would have been particularly fazed by a 12ft wall. Whether she could have been motivated to climb over it, instead of insisting that the staff open the gate for her … is a different question.
(That was about 1979, maybe ’78 ; she took the one-way trip to relief from stomach cancer in July 1983.)
Rough translation:
(0:02) October 2012
(0:06)
generally,
A cat can jump up to five times its own height.
The average cat is about 30cm tall.
This means the average cat can jump 1.5 meters.
(For reference, this Savanna cat is over 40cm tall)
(0:20) How high can the cat jump?
Wow, love the camera work!
Probably an outlier here, but I thought the music was pretty cool. The trick is to take it in small doses.
Several days after seeing the above video, I
found another about the “physics” of cats landing on there feet.
Enjoy~
Jerry,
I thought I posted only the link to the video. And not the video.
Hope I did it correctly?
Scott
Speaking of amazing cats, I hurt from laughing at this post. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
If you need help wrapping packages this season, ask a Cat. Although Dolly did a pretty good job last night with Daddy’s package. We only went through 3 sheets of paper. LOL Enjoy these directions from Judi and the “me too dog” Dolly Madison at KnittingParadise.com
Wrapping Presents with a Cat Clear large space on table for wrapping present.
Go to closet and collect bag in which present is contained, and shut door.
Open door and remove cat from closet.
Go to cupboard and retrieve rolls of wrapping paper.
Go back and remove cat from cupboard.
Go to drawer, and collect transparent sticky tape, ribbons, scissors, labels, etc. . .
Lay out presents and wrapping materials on table, to enable wrapping strategy to be formed.
Go back to drawer to get string, remove cat that has been in the drawer since last visit and collect string.
Remove present from bag.
Remove cat from bag.
Open box to check present, remove cat from box, replace present.
Lay out paper to enable cutting to size.
Try and smooth out paper, realize cat is underneath and remove cat.
Cut the paper to size, keeping the cutting line straight.
Throw away first sheet as cat chased the scissors, and tore the paper.
Cut second sheet of paper to size – by putting cat in the bag the present came in.
Place present on paper.
Lift up edges of paper to seal in present. Wonder why edges don’t reach. Realize cat is between present and paper. Remove cat.
Place object on paper, to hold in place while tearing transparent sticky tape.
Spend 20 minutes carefully trying to remove transparent sticky tape from cat with pair of nail scissors.
Seal paper with sticky tape, making corners as neat as possible.
Look for roll of ribbon. Chase cat down hall in order to retrieve ribbon.
Try to wrap present with ribbon in a two-directional turn.
Re-roll ribbon and remove paper, which is now torn due to cat’s enthusiastic ribbon chase.
Repeat steps 13-20 until you reach last sheet of paper.
Decide to skip steps 13-17 in order to save time and reduce risk of losing last sheet of paper. Retrieve old cardboard box that is the right size for sheet of paper.
Put present in box, and tie down with string.
Remove string, open box and remove cat.
Put all packing materials in bag with present and head for locked room.
Once inside lockable room, lock door and start to relay out paper and materials.
Remove cat from box, unlock door, put cat outside door, close and relock.
Repeat previous step as often as is necessary (until you can hear cat from outside door)
Lay out last sheet of paper. (This will be difficult in the small area of the toilet, but do your best)
Discover cat has already torn paper. Unlock door go out and hunt through various cupboards, looking for sheet of last year’s paper. Remember that you haven’t got any left because cat helped with this last year as well.
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