How Cats Lap: Water Uptake by Felis catus
Lap Cats
We all know that domestic cats lap milk, but perhaps fewer of us have thought about how they do this. Reis et al. (p. 1231, published online 11 November; see the cover) have discovered that cats curl their tongues so that the top surface touches the water. Then, by lifting their tongues rapidly, a column of liquid grows by inertia until gravity induces its breakage and the cats close their jaws to capture the liquid. Lapping frequency is tuned to maximize the volume ingested, depending on the animal's mass; a relationship that holds as true for tabby cats as it does for lions.
Abstract
Animals have developed a range of drinking strategies depending on physiological and environmental constraints. Vertebrates with incomplete cheeks use their tongue to drink; the most common example is the lapping of cats and dogs. We show that the domestic cat (Felis catus) laps by a subtle mechanism based on water adhesion to the dorsal side of the tongue. A combined experimental and theoretical analysis reveals that Felis catus exploits fluid inertia to defeat gravity and pull liquid into the mouth. This competition between inertia and gravity sets the lapping frequency and yields a prediction for the dependence of frequency on animal mass. Measurements of lapping frequency across the family Felidae support this prediction, which suggests that the lapping mechanism is conserved among felines.
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Published In
Science
Volume 330 | Issue 6008
26 November 2010
26 November 2010
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Copyright © 2010, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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Submission history
Received: 21 July 2010
Accepted: 20 October 2010
Published in print: 26 November 2010
Acknowledgments
All research with animals complied with and was approved by MIT's Animal Rights Committee. We thank J. Piazza and the staff at the Zoo New England for help with filming felines; M. Rock, A. Kennedy, and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) for help with filming domestic cats; G. McKinley for use of his FiSER stage; A. Crompton, A. Thexton, W. Kier, J. Bales, J. Bush, B. Andreotti, J. Bico, D. Vella, and A. Boudaoud for discussions and comments; and A. Jones, E. Samaha, R. Tomas, and W. Jarjoui for technical assistance. S.J., P.M.R., and R.S. designed research; S.J., P.M.R., R.S., and J.M.A. performed experiments and analyzed data; S.J., J.M.A., and R.S. developed scalings and theory; P.M.R., R.S., S.J., and J.M.A. wrote the paper.
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