If you’ve ever wondered how Jerry managed to outsmart Tom so often, science might have an answer: mice produce a chemical to escape cats’ grasp.
A study conducted by the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California explained that mice produce a substance that has a similar effect to catnip on felines, leaving them confused and giving the mice time to devise an escape plan.
Scientists believe the substance makes cats playful and temporarily forget their predatory instincts. Mice may have developed the ability to generate this chemical through their sweat over many years of evolution as a survival mechanism against predator attacks.
“Mice produce lactones in their skin, which are released when they’re stressed. I hypothesized that mice developed a modification in lactones to mimic nepetalactone and trigger catnip-like reactions in cats,” said the study’s lead researcher, Professor Benjamin Hart, to The Sunday Telegraph.
However, the sweat molecule is not foolproof. Catnip can affect domestic cats as well as larger cats, including leopards, cougars, and lynxes, but lions and tigers are not always consistently affected.
It’s also thought that about a third of cats are not affected by the substance at all, meaning mice might have to rely on a fair amount of cunning and sweat to escape a predator’s attack.
Photo: Pexels. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
