Quite Simply, Cats Hunt

There is a tendency among urban cat owners to deny the cat's place as nature's best-packaged small, land-based predator. Quite simply, cats hunt, and this has little to do with hunger.

Biologist Robert Adamec has found that hunger and hunting are controlled by different parts of the brain. He allowed cats to see a rat while eating a favorite meal: they stopped eating to kill the rat, but returned to the meal.

Because of this split, hunting is more common than many owners realize. In one German survey of the stomach contents of pet cats killed in road accidents, 40-60 percent of home-fed cats also had the remains of prey in their stomachs.

When driven by hunger, a cat is more likely to scavenge than to hunt: it is far easier to slash through plastic bags to find a cooked chicken carcass than it is to hunt patiently for a mouse.

On a full stomach, however, the most carefully bred, expensive, lovable pet cat will still be a hobby hunter, impelled to stalk and pounce.