We can often see videos of cats drilling boxes on the Internet, and they are so cute that I can’t help laughing. But have you ever thought about why cats like to hide in boxes? According to zoologists, it turns out that this is a way for cats to gain a sense of security.
Relieve Stress
Veterinary Crowe, Utrecht University, The Netherlands Dia Fink is one of the researchers who has focused on stress levels in shelter cats in recent years. At an animal shelter in the Netherlands, she divided newly arrived cats into two groups, giving one of them boxes and the other not. She found a significant difference in stress levels between the two groups of cats. In the new environment, those cats who received the crate were significantly more adaptable, had much lower stress levels, and were more willing to interact with humans.
The first reaction of almost all cats is to step back and hide when they are in a stressful situation. “Hiding is a behavioral strategy that cats use when they encounter environmental changes and stress,” says Claudia Funk. This holds true for cats in the wild, as well as cats living in your home. . However, cats in the wild will hide in tree tops or burrows, while your cat will seek peace in a shoebox.
Avoiding problems in a safe place
An important point to point out is that cats are actually very bad at conflict resolution. To quote from The Domestic Cat: The Biology Behind Behavior: “Cats do not seem to have developed the same conflict resolution strategies as other more socially adapted species, so they may avoid intense encounters by avoiding each other or reducing activity. Fight.”
Therefore, cats tend to avoid problems rather than solve them. In this sense, a box often represents a safe zone, a place where all anxiety, hostility, and unnecessary attention simply disappear.
For warmth
A astute observer will find that cats not only love boxes, but also relax in many quirky places. Some curl up in the sink, while others prefer to hide in shoes, bowls, shopping bags, coffee cups, empty egg cartons and other small, confined spaces. Which brings up another reason cats love crates (and other seemingly uncomfortable spaces): they get cold.
According to a 2006 National Research Council study, the thermoneutral zone (the range of ambient temperatures in which an individual warm-blooded is at its minimum) is 30 to 36 degrees Celsius, within which cats You will feel comfortable without generating excess heat to maintain body temperature or expending metabolic energy to cool down. This temperature range is just about 6.7 degrees Celsius above the human thermal neutrality zone, so you shouldn’t be surprised to see your neighbor’s cat basking in the middle of the asphalt in the summer.
This also explains why many cats like to curl up in crates and other oddly small spaces. Corrugated cardboard is a great insulator, and the narrow space forces the cat to curl up in a ball, which in turn helps it retain heat. In fact, the National Research Council study also found that ambient temperatures in most cat dens were around 22 degrees Celsius, almost 10 degrees Celsius below the lowest temperature in the cat’s thermoneutral zone.
