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#Are you kitten me? Cats can learn how to be your copycat

#Are you kitten me? Cats can learn how to be your copycat

Cat man do.

Yes, your feline friend really is a copycat – purr-fectly capable of mirroring your every move, a renowned canine expert claims.

The finding comes from Claudia Fugazza, an animal behaviorist at Budapest’s Eötvös Loránd University who partnered with a Japanese dog trainer, Fumi Higaki, to do the research. The study was published in the scientific journal Animal Cognition.

What’s groundbreaking is their revelation about cat cognition: Kitty can learn the concept of imitation, not just learn to do a few tricks. So far, Fugazza said, only apes, dolphins, killer whales and parrots have shown they can imitate humans.

And if Felis catus can do impersonations, maybe lots of other critters can too, Fugazza told The Post.

The discovery, after seven months of trials last year, was destiny. The two had collaborated before on pooch projects, but Higaki suspected her 11-year-old puss, Ebisu, might also be a good copier because she is motivated by treats — so much so that she hung around the canine classes in hopes of snatching a reward of her own.

So, Higaki figured she’d try to teach Ebisu how to imitate her by using a technique developed by Fugazza called Do as I Do. First, the trainer shows the animal how to do a trick it already knows – like shake hands – and then barking “Do it!” Eventually, Fido or Fluffy learns “Do it!” is code for “Copy me” and can mimic any action that it hasn’t done before.

Ebisu proved herself to be an able learner. Higaki started out by training her cat to lay down, stand up, spin around, touch a wobbly toy, open a drawer, and bite a rubber string.

Cat Ebisu imitates the actions of trainer
Cat Ebisu imitates the actions of a trainer 

Next came two new actions — Higaki raising her right hand and touching a box, and Higaki bending down and rubbing her face against the box.

Then came 16 trials – and what Fugazza saw as success. Ebisu copied Higaki more than 80% of the time, showing she understood she had a head and a hand — er, paw.

“Cat owners should now know that cats may learn a lot by observing their owners,” Fugazza said.

The study, though, left a couple of other animal behaviorists scratching their heads.

Both Claudio Tennie, of the University of Tübingen in Germany, and Chicago-based cat psychologist Valerie Chalcraft want the finding replicated by more cats.

“Big shoes to fill by one small cat!” Chalcraft told The Post.

Tennie points out the study doesn’t show whether cats naturally pattern humans or whether they simply learn a skill through the intense Do as I Do technique.

Cat Ebisu imitates the actions of a trainer
Cat Ebisu imitates the actions of a trainer

“Think dancing dogs,” Tennie told The Post.

“So, do I think that cats spontaneously imitate, without training? Unclear,” he said. “Do I think they can be trained to imitate? I wouldn’t be surprised.”

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