People often say that "cats have nine lives", jumping down at a height of tens of meters are safe and sound, in exchange for humans, they have long been crushed to pieces. For a long time, the cat's "immortal body" has caused many people to speculate, there was once a doctor, in order to verify the view that "cats falling from a height will not die", he specifically found 150 cats, thrown down from different tall buildings, what is the final result?
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Cat this creature is naturally curious, a bird that falls by the window, insects lying on the wall, will cause its infinite interest, and the cat likes to run to the window when there is nothing to do, it seems to think that the outside world is more exciting than home, if you encounter estrus, the "call" of the opposite sex, the cat is even more impatient, fluttering jumped out of the window sill, just when you shouted, panicked and ran over to see if the cat was okay, it has landed safely, wagging its tail to find its "object". But then again, why doesn't a cat jump from a height and not fall to its death?
In real life, such examples are common, according to the British Sun reported on August 4, a black and white cat named Edward, accidentally fell from a five-story apartment, two fractures of the skull, cheekbones, jaw and palate shattered, the injury was so serious, and finally miraculously survived; in March 2012, Ms. Kiri, who lives in Boston, her cat sugar, somehow, suddenly jumped from the 19-story window, frightening Ms. Kiri. A one-year-old kitten fell from a height of 60 meters, but surprisingly, sugar bounced back when it landed, and ran to the apartment building, after which the Animal Rescue Alliance examined Sugar's body and found that the lungs were slightly injured, and the rest was no big problem, Ms. Kiri excitedly told reporters that she believed in the old proverb that cats have nine lives.
Could it be that cats fall from a height and don't die, is it really because they have nine lives? Regarding this statement, there are many versions of this statement in ancient and modern China and abroad, for example, in the Buddhist sutra "Quotations", the Buddha said: "A cat has a spiritual nature, and its life has nine, and a person has only one." There is a similar proverb in England: "The cat has nine lives, three for play, three for wandering, and the remaining three, stay with you." After listening to the latter sentence, people feel inexplicably moved, but why do people in ancient times think that "cats have nine lives", perhaps they have seen the scene where the cat fell from a high place, but did not die, after all, they still think that the black cat is a sign of bad luck, in fact, it is only the most normal coat color in the cat world. So is it true that a creature like a cat falls from any height and will not fall to its death?
Obviously, this is a fallacy, in fact, no matter from what height it falls, the cat has a certain chance of injury, or even death, just like the two examples we cited earlier, although the cat is not dead, but how much will be injured, but the cat and other animals, falling from a certain height, more "resistant to falling", which depends on the unique structure of the cat, so that when they fall at a certain height, adjust the posture, let the limbs land first, and then rely on the way of joint bending to alleviate the impact when falling
In daily life, we often see that whether the cat is on the window sill, or the roof falls, their bodies are arched, and the limbs are facing down, and even the "shoveler" personally tested it, holding the cat upwards, or directly down, no matter what the posture, when the cat falls, it can twist its body and return to the aforementioned landing posture, this phenomenon is called the cat's "turning reflex",
This ability is innate to the cat, about 3-4 weeks to appear, 6-7 weeks will gradually improve, and this ability and cat's inner ear has a great relationship, the cat's ear canal is full of fluid, when the fluid flows, will produce signals to the brain, so that the brain receives changes in the body, and then help regulate the balance, because the cat's body skeleton is very flexible and soft, and its collarbone is not functional, so it can easily move the legs and spine, perfectly make this falling action, Maximum cushioning of damage caused by cats falling from height.
In 1894, the French scientist Etienne-Jules Marey published a set of photos of cats falling from height in the magazine Nature, which clearly captured the complete action of the cat's entire "positive reflex".
So the cat will "turn over the reflex", does it mean that the cat jumps from a high place and falls to death? In fact, this reflex ability is highly limited, according to scientific research, want to trigger the cat
The height condition of the "flip reflex" is 90 cm, less than 90 cm, the cat will not have time to react, will fall in other positions, thus bringing harm to it. So what happens to a height of more than 90 centimeters? In 1987, the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association published an article called "Cat's High-Rise Syndrome", which recorded 132 cats that fell from the building in the New York Pet Emergency Hospital, and after more than five months of statistics, an incredible phenomenon was found: cats that fell from low floors were more seriously injured than cats that fell from high-rise buildings, with 6 floors as the dividing line, and research found that when cats fell on more than 7 floors, it did not take a "falling posture", but stretched the entire body to increase air resistance. Slow down the rate of decline
They finally concluded that cats that fell at a height of 6 meters to 100 meters had a survival rate of up to 90%, and that after falling to a certain height, the cat might be able to avoid death. But this study actually has some loopholes, the 132 cats were taken to the pet hospital for treatment after falling, and those cats who fell to their deaths on the spot have no life characteristics when they were sent to the hospital, these cats are not counted, so the survival rate of 90% is inflated.
In order to test the idea that "cats fall from heights will not fall to their deaths", Dr. Karl Kruzelniski of Australia did a cruel experiment, which was criticized by many people at the time, and he threw 150 cats older than five months old from different floors, and in this bloody and blurry experiment, 10% of the cats unfortunately died on the spot. Dr. Karl Kruzelniski believes that one is that the higher the height, the more time the cat has enough time to complete the limb extension action, basically will not be too hurt, which also explains the reason for the high survival rate of cats falling from the upper level, cats have different response nerves and balance from other animals, can quickly adjust their bodies when falling, plus the cat's feet have thick meat pads, equivalent to shock absorbers;
The second is that when the cat stretches its limbs, it will quickly reach the terminal speed, which will be asked by someone, what is the terminal speed, the terminal speed is when the resistance of the object and its speed increase at the same time, the object will remain at a certain speed, and the speed at this time is called the terminal speed. According to the data of scientific research, the minimum terminal speed of people when jumping at a high altitude is 54 meters per second, while the cat is 27 meters per second, so in comparison, the terminal speed of the cat is small, and the damage corresponding to the landing is small
Although the cat has such a counter-heavenly skill, but falling from a high place, will cause certain damage to the cat's body, and even death, cats with "tall building syndrome", more than 90% can continue to survive, 25%-33% need to take life-sustaining methods of treatment, because the cat falling from a high altitude will inevitably cause some trauma, such as joint damage, tendon rupture, ligament damage, etc., serious cases will also cause visceral bleeding, or even rupture, so don't look at the cat jumping from a high altitude with a high probability of not dying, The price to pay is also very large.
Up to this point, we can also conclude that the cat falling from a certain height is indeed higher than the survival rate of other animals, but it does not mean that the cat can not die, and there is no so-called nine lives, once the height of the fall exceeds the range that the cat can bear, there will be a great risk, so I advise you to shovel the, do not take your own cat to do experiments. In addition, in general, although each cat has the ability to "flip the reflex", most domestic cats now lack exercise, and their bodies are more rounded, which greatly reduces their ability to correct movements in the air, coupled with excessive weight, the landing speed becomes faster, resulting in them being more vulnerable to injury. So don't look at the other cats jumping down what is not, after all, there is still some difference between wild cats and domestic cats, but don't kill a cute and innocent cat because of your curiosity.