“A Review of the Development and Functions of Cat Play, With Future Research Considerations”, 2019-05-01 (; backlinks; similar):
We provide an extensive review of the cat play empirical literature to date.
Play is highly influenced by biological factors, social context, and stimuli features.
Predation likely develops via multiple experiential routes, not only from play.
We propose several future research directions related to cat play.
Clear, consistent definitions of play behaviors are recommended for future research.
Although attention to domestic cat (Felis silvestris catus) behavior and cognition has increased in recent years, numerous questions remain regarding their play. Few studies have included play as a variable of interest, and to the best of our knowledge no behavioral studies focusing on cat play have been published in the last 15 years, and there is no recent review of our current understanding of its development, behavioral components, function, or outstanding research questions. This is despite the accessibility of the cat as a convenient model for more difficult to study members of the Carnivora, as recognized by pioneering studies of cat play in the 1970s and 1980s.
We address this gap by reviewing and synthesizing the existing literature on play development, identifying and discussing eliciting factors and possible functions of play in cats. Additionally, we conducted an extensive review of the literature to identify how play has been operationalized in peer-reviewed publications (n = 46).
We identified 138 behaviors measured in these studies, with 84 of them unique behavioral labels. Our findings demonstrate the diversity—and sometimes commonalities—of descriptions of play behavior across these studies, while highlighting the challenge of inconsistent operationalization of cat play in the literature. We conclude by proposing and exploring several open questions and offering suggestions for future research, particularly related to pet cats.
[Keywords: play behavior, play functions, domestic cat, Felidae, predatory behavior, ethogram]