Stacey: "Goku certainly has a variety of looks"
This after research revealed that cats have 276 recorded facial expressions.
A study conducted by researchers Lauren Scott and Brittany N. Florkiewicz revealed some interesting insights into cats and their means of communication.
As a cat mom, Stacey Norman often shares anecdotes about her cat, Goku. It can be said that cats are quite good at communicating their feelings.
But after this study, we have come to learn that cats are much more expressive than we realised.
"A recent study found that cats have nearly 300 facial expressions that they use to communicate with other felines—from sweet smirks to hostile hissy faces" (My Modern Met)
That's a lot of expressions. Can you imagine the attitude that comes with it?
We cannot even begin to identify what these could be, but according to My Modern Met, the researchers "recorded 276 different expressions among the cats" over the course of 10 months.
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"Following their observations, Scott and Florkiewicz determined that 45% of the expressions were friendly, while 37% came across as distinctly aggressive. The remaining 18% was ambiguous or simply could be read both ways." (My Modern Met)
We decided that it was important to get some real-life input about these facial expressions, so we asked Stacey about Goku.
This is what she had to say:
I don't know about 300 different faces but Goku certainly has a variety of looks. There's the one when he's disinterested, there's the one when he's angry, there's the one when he's powering up, there's the one when he sees a bird, there's the one when he's about to bite me, there's the one when he requires tuna, there's another where he is not actually looking at me but he's looking at my boyfriend because he understands that he is the weak spot, i.e he's the one who will get up in the middle of the night and do all sorts of things for this cat. Then there's the one he puts on when he is in new company and trying to make a good impression. There's another one when he's frightened so that could be thunder, lightning, a breeze, perhaps a leaf blowing in the wrong direction. Come to think of it, he does have about 300 different faces, so, yes, I can concur that is a cat of many faces. Oh, and they're all expensive, they cost me so much money.
It does sound as bizarre as it must be to witness, but it sure is interesting to read the way cats communicate with each other.
And, more importantly, the fact that they are very similar to humans in using their facial and body language to communicate with one another.
"While it's impossible to determine what cats were “saying” to each other, they found that cats tend to move their ears and whiskers toward other felines during friendly interactions and to move them away during hostile encounters. Constricted pupils and licking lips were also determined to be signs of confrontation." (My Modern Met)
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