Researchers found that cats spent more time sniffing the scent of strangers than that of their owners, indicating an ability to differentiate between familiar and unfamiliar human odours.
Domestic cats are renowned for their finely tuned sense of smell, which they use to communicate and to hunt – but this new study (published in the journal PLOS One) marks the first time researchers have tested whether cats can distinguish different humans by smell.
To investigate, researchers presented cats with three plastic tubes: one containing the scent of their owner, one with the scent of a stranger, and a control with no human scent. The odours were collected by swabbing human participants under the armpit, behind the ear and between the toes.
The cats were shown to spend longer sniffing a scent swabbed from a stranger than the scent of their owner, which indicates that they recognised the humans they are more familiar with.
Researchers also found that the cats were more likely to sniff the unknown odours with their right nostril first, before switching to their left nostril. This suggests that cats use different sides of their brain for different tasks.
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Top image credit: Getty Images
