Cats prefer to use their eyes rather than follow their nose when it comes to finding the location of food, according to a new study.
Cats have a tremendous sense of smell and vision, and researchers at the University of Lincoln, UK, have for the first time investigated which sense they prefer to use under test conditions.
They found sight may be more important than smell.
In experiments, six cats were placed in a maze which had 'decision' points - and the cats had to choose which avenue they took based on their preference for using images or smell.
They were simultaneously presented with two squares of paper, each containing a different visual and odour cue. One combination of stimuli indicated they would receive a food reward, whereas the other led to no reward.
Once the cats had learned the rules of the game and received food rewards for correctly choosing either the visual stimulus or the olfactory stimulus, the researchers separated the cues (visual versus olfactory) to investigate whether the cats were using their eyes or nose to solve the task.
Four out of the six cats picked the visual cue, over the odour cue, to receive their food reward with only one cat preferring to use its nose and the sixth showing no preference.
It seems that when they had the choice, cats simply preferred the visual signals over the olfactory ones, researchers said.
"Up until now we really thought that the sense of smell would dominate how cats view their world, but we are now reconsidering this," said Evy Mayes, who carried out the research at the University of Lincoln as a Masters student.
Due to the small sample size, further investigation is required to infer a general preference for cats to use visual over olfactory stimuli when learning the location of food, researchers said.
The findings have been published in the international journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science.
