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Climate and science reporter
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Domestic cats can tell the difference between the smell of their owner and that of a stranger, a new study suggests.
The study by Tokyo University of Agriculture found cats spent significantly longer sniffing tubes containing the odours of unknown people compared to tubes containing their owner’s smell.
This suggests cats can discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar humans based on their odour, the researchers say, but that it is unclear whether they can identify specific people.
Cats are known to use their strong sense of smell to identify and communicate with other cats, but researchers had not yet studied whether they can also use it to distinguish between people.
Previous studies of human recognition by cats have shown they are able to distinguish between voices, interpret someone’s gaze to find food, and change their behaviour according to a person’s emotional state that is recognised via their odour.
In the study published on Wednesday, researchers presented 30 cats with plastic tubes containing either a swab containing the odour of their owner, a swab containing the odour of a person of the same sex as their owner who they had never met, or a clean swab.
The swabs containing odours had been rubbed under the armpit, behind the ear, and between the toes of the owner or stranger.
Cats spent significantly more time sniffing the odours of unknown people compared to those of their owner or the empty tube, suggesting they can discriminate between the smells of familiar and unfamiliar people, the researchers
