Fly-catching eyeless cat
2,019 views · Published 10 December 2018 · 5:02 · Indexed 27 October 2026
Channel: Cell Press · 2018 · Science & Technology
Diesel is our pet cat. We found him when he was a few weeks old, and near dead with severe feline herpes. We managed to save his life, but his eyes had to be surgically removed by a veterinary eye specialist. Now 2 years old, Diesel makes one rethink sensory processing of space. Visitors rarely notice his blindness. He moves around the ever-changing environment of our lab, never colliding with objects or people. His propagation is so fluid that many people simply don't believe he is without eyes. For us humans, space is visual. For Diesel it is auditory. For the sharks of Gardiner and Atema, space can clearly be derived from smell. This video is a compilation of film taken in our lab, where Diesel regularly "hunts" lab members. His most spectacular feat of auditory spatial localization, however, is his regular behavior of hunting flies in flight. He will leap several feet into the air to catch them between his clapped paws. See the paper by Gardiner and Atema, Current Biology (2013): https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822%2810%2900591-9 Video editing: Lee Sela; Music: HaMuzot
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