How do cats land on their feet? - Pet Lab - video Dailymotion

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00:00Hey guys, Dr. Mustache here at the Pet Lab with the Pet Collective.

00:04Now there's an old saying that cats always land on their feet.

00:07There's another old saying that a piece of buttered toast will always land buttered side down.

00:12So today on Pet Lab, we're going to tie a piece of buttered toast, butter side up, to the back of this cat.

00:19Oh.

00:22Okay.

00:25Alright, so our lawyer has just informed me that we will not be tying anything to Mr. Fluffernutter here today.

00:31Great!

00:32So instead, we're just going to focus on our feline friend's facility for always falling feet first.

00:40Why do cats land on their feet?

00:48The answer is aerial righting reflex.

00:50And there you have it.

00:54Wait, you're not sure what that means, right?

00:57Okay, let me explain.

00:59It turns out that cats are anatomically optimized for righting themselves during falls.

01:04No matter how it starts to fall, a cat can twist its spine so that it rotates its legs under its body,

01:10holds that position, and then lands on its four feet.

01:13No big deal, right?

01:15Well, it turns out it's harder than you would think.

01:20Let's look at people for comparison.

01:22With 26,000 fatalities in 2010 alone,

01:26falling was the third leading cause of accident-related death in the United States,

01:30according to the Center for Disease Control.

01:32Which has a pretty cool website with all sorts of charts about causes of death, if you're into that kind of thing.

01:37But even if you fall a couple feet or even inches sometimes, you can still break a bone.

01:41Maybe that's why between 2 and 5 percent of the general population suffers from acrophobia, the fear of heights.

01:48But not so with cats.

01:50They can jump from ledge to ledge without a second thought.

01:53Sometimes they've even been known to survive falls from high-rise windows.

01:56But what makes cats so good at this?

01:59Why can't I just right myself while I'm falling, absorb the impact, and walk away?

02:04Well, let's take a moment to look at some of the factors that go into falling, and more importantly, landing.

02:10First up is speed.

02:12When you're falling, the human body accelerates at 22 miles per hour for every second that you're falling.

02:19Eventually, if you fall far enough, air resistance or terminal velocity

02:24causes you to fall at a constant but still very fast rate.

02:28After you consider speed, there's the distribution of mass throughout a body.

02:32And the final and related element is how our body absorbs impact.

02:37Well, it turns out that cats are superior to humans on all these fronts.

02:41They're smaller than we are and have much less mass, so they hit the ground with significantly less force than we do.

02:47They spread their arms and legs like a skydiver would to increase their air resistance.

02:52And this gives them a terminal velocity of 60 miles per hour, which is still a lot,

02:57but it's only half of human terminal velocity, which is 120 miles per hour.

03:02And they distribute their weight across four limbs, not just two,

03:06which means if they can get their legs underneath them, they'll land on four shock absorbers.

03:12And this is the really amazing thing about a falling cat.

03:15It almost always manages to get its feet underneath its body.

03:19That means it not only survives a fall, but it lands on its feet and walks away.

03:23The process starts when cats use their eyes and inner ears to determine which way is up and which way is down.

03:29As soon as the cat figures out which way is up, it manages to twist face downward

03:34without ever changing its net angular momentum.

03:37This complex series of movements where the cat's spine bends to allow its front and rear ends to rotate semi-independently

03:44allows the cat to get them twisted around correctly to absorb impact.

03:48This maneuver that cats pull off instinctually has been perfected by the time they're seven weeks old,

03:53but it takes the level of muscle control, coordination, and speed usually only found in humans

03:59when they're competitive divers or gymnasts or figure skaters with years of focus and practice.

04:05When you combine that with their inherent physical advantages,

04:08you begin to understand how cats are able to fall time and time again without injury.

04:13According to NBCNews.com, a deaf cat in Boston fell 19 stories from its owner's apartment window

04:20onto a small patch of mulch right next to the building and only suffered a collapsed lung and a chipped tooth.

04:27Now, tales of human survival of more than a couple stories are really, really rare,

04:32and they usually involve multiple broken bones and months of recovery.

04:36So it seems to us silly, clumsy humans that cats have nine lives,

04:40but it turns out they just have biology and physics on their side.

04:43Oh well, at least we don't chase laser pointers.

04:46Well, that's it for me, Dr. Mustache, and this edition of Pet Lab.

04:50Remember, if you have questions about your pet or pets in general, leave them in the comments section below,

04:56and maybe we'll feature your question in a future episode of Pet Lab.

05:00Meanwhile, why not click that subscribe button and join the Pet Collective,

05:03a terrific YouTube channel that features 24-7 puppy cams,

05:07music video parodies starring your favorite pets,

05:10and me, Dr. Mustache, answering all of your pet questions.

How do cats land on their feet? - Pet Lab

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