How to tell if cats are fighting or playing

Harmless skirmish or aggressive fight? This is often not immediately apparent in cats. A Slovakian study is now providing assistance: As its authors report in the specialist journal "Scientific Reports", certain characteristics can tell cat owners the difference between play and seriousness - and thus also whether they might have to intervene.

At first glance, the video scenes look ruthless: a tabby kitten puts his older fellow in a headlock, who defends herself with powerful paw kicks. But the wrestling match, which lasts several minutes, is repeatedly interrupted by spontaneous cleaning sessions between the two house tigers.

In fact, the YouTube clip shows a playful interaction and is part of a video collection evaluated by a team led by veterinarian Noema Gajdoš Kmecová from the Slovakian University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy. The aim of this was to identify behavioral categories that could be helpful in distinguishing between aggressive and playful interactions, under real conditions rather than in a laboratory.

The scientists analyzed 105 YouTube clips and videos provided by cat owners showing the interactions between 210 cats.

Based on their initial observations, they compiled six behavioral categories that included wrestling, hunting, and vocalizations, among others. In addition, the research team created three interaction categories: "playful" described friendly, "agonistic" aggressive, and "intermediate" a mixture of both interactions.

In the videos examined, more than half of the observed cats (56.2 percent) were classified as playful in their interaction, 28.6 percent as agonistic and 15.2 percent as intermediate. When comparing these three groups to the behavioral groups, the researchers found that cat-to-cat wrestling was most closely associated with the playful category.

However, this cluster contained a particularly large number of young animals, which are known to play an important part in wrestling. In contrast, agonistic behavior was characterized primarily by pursuit and vocalization. Intermediate interactions eventually showed characteristics of both groups but were more closely associated with the playful cluster.

In fact, the study authors suspect that such a combination of playful and aggressive behavior reflects a short-term discrepancy in the cats' social behavior rather than a disruption in the relationship.

Insecure cat owners should therefore take a close look: if their cats are young and don't make any sounds when they wrestle with each other, they are most likely playing. If the interactions are characterized by longer, inactive pauses, chases and vocalizations, it is probably not a game. The degree of reciprocity is also important.

Also, individual incidents said nothing about the basic relationship between the animals: "For example, if two cats frequently rub against each other, pet each other, sleep in close contact with each other, share resources and greet each other with pricked ears, an occasional aggressive exchange may not be Problem for the owner to worry about.”

Conversely, it could indicate a tension if the cats never had close physical contact, did not rub each other often, grooming often ended in fights, and interactions were sometimes loud and only occasionally mutual.