6 votes

Offbeat Fridays – The thread where offbeat headlines become front page news

Posted by mycketforvirrad
Tags: ask.discussion, recurring.weekly, offbeat fridays, offbeat

Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like flooding.flash, sam neill and lindsey graham. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was clued in.

But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!

4 comments

  1. [3]
    skybrian
    Link
    A new study finds that sometimes cats groom each other specifically to be annoying [...] [...]

    A new study finds that sometimes cats groom each other specifically to be annoying

    To check whether this behavior was more widespread, Ms. Van Belle and her colleagues looked at 53 households across Europe with two or more cats. After telling the pet owners what to look for, the researchers had them submit videos of their cats’ interactions. The scientists then randomly selected a submission from each participant and used statistical analyses to tease apart the hidden nuance in cat-licking behavior.

    [...]

    The results revealed two things. The first was consistent with typical grooming behavior: The cats licked each other on the head, neck or ears. In these videos, the cats were much more likely to mimic each other’s body postures, either cuddling together or sitting next to one another before and after the grooming. The licks were clearly friendly gestures.

    The other side of the cat-licking coin revealed something more in line with bullying. A subset of the videos showed that licking often preceded conflict. These interactions were defined by differing body postures, where one cat might stand and lick the other sitting cat. The aggressive licks were followed by signs of stress in the licked cat, including staring, yowling, rotating the ears, licking the lips or swiping at the other cat. The results were inconsistent with the prior conception of cat allogrooming.

    [...]

    The researchers suggest that unwanted licks might be an easy way to jab at another cat without getting into a fight. While a full scuffle could result in injury, a precisely placed irritating lick might be a safer way to tell your furry “friend” to get lost.

    8 votes
    1. jredd23
      Link Parent
      Cats being cats. It's a great area of research going on with animals so at least to me, being a dog person, i find this interesting

      Cats being cats. It's a great area of research going on with animals so at least to me, being a dog person, i find this interesting

      5 votes
    2. patience_limited
      Link Parent
      So, a qualified "yes" to the aggressive licks, from my cat experience. Except that the bullied cat welcomes the aggressive lick and tries to lean into it while purring. The aggressive cat follows...

      So, a qualified "yes" to the aggressive licks, from my cat experience. Except that the bullied cat welcomes the aggressive lick and tries to lean into it while purring. The aggressive cat follows it up with a hiss and swat. Very confusing for the friendly bullied cat.

      5 votes