Just coinicidence that he gets them right?
Thanks
Q
I’m disappointed, I was hoping for a cat under a shell.
That’s cute. But I think the cat can hear the ball clink in the shell. Still though, that’s no small feat training a cat to do anything.
“No small feat”
I love it, Shakes! :):)
Quasi
PS: Here’s one without a bell: Shell game gambling and winning Cat | Katze gewinnt beim Hütchenspiel | Chat qui joue au bonneteau - YouTube
Nice vid.
Gonna slide it over to MPSIMS, though.
You mean paws.
Hate to be the sour puss, but I’m pretty sure the cat is just listening for the jingle. I’d be impressed if it was a soft toy under the cup.
Don’t fall for it. The cat is a shill, you’ll lose your shirt.
Refer to post 4.
I also thought it might be something with a scent.
post 4 got it wrong atleast once.
Plus a tinfoil ball would still make a noise.
Cut him some slack. He’s a cat.
Well, if you’ll notice the post #4 kitty got fooled when his owner actually did lift 2 of the cups up to show them empty, so he got that whole pass wrong.
What I find unique is both cats’ reasoning abilities. (If that is what I am seeing). It appears that each cat knows what is expected of him/her and they follow through by choosing.
Quasi
In terms of survival skills, this is pretty much right in a cat’s wheelhouse, isn’t it? If a cat is chasing a mouse and the mouse runs under something, the cat doesn’t think “oh no, my dinner has vanished from the face of the earth.” Well, maybe there used to be cats who thought that, but they starved to death. Today’s cats are descended from the cats who thought “nice try, Mickey, but I’m going to reach under that leaf and eat you.”
Finding little things that they want is what cats do.
It’s worth pointing out that the shell game is a scam because people use sleight of hand to make it look like the ball is somewhere it isn’t. The people playing with the cats aren’t doing that. And I don’t know if sleight of hand would work on a cat, anyway.
There’s also the Clever Hans effect to account for. Animals are ridiculously good at reading body language - if the handler knows the right answer, they may be unconsciously telling the animal what it is. With a different handler, or a handler who doesn’t know the truth, their abilities evaporate.
I am still impressed that they got the cats to do anything!
Cute.
You’ll notice the lazy assed cat is doing this laying down of course