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The cat righting reflex is a cat 's innate ability to orient itself as it falls in order to land on its feet. The righting reflex begins to appear at 3–4 weeks of age, and is perfected at 6–9 weeks. [1] Cats are able to do this because they have an unusually flexible backbone and no functional clavicle (collarbone).
During a fall from a high place, a cat can reflexively twist its body and right itself using its acute sense of balance and its flexibility. This is known as the cat's "righting reflex". The minimum height required for this to occur in most cats (safely) would be around 90 cm (3.0 ft).
The righting reflex, also known as the labyrinthine righting reflex, or the Cervico-collic reflex; is a reflex that corrects the orientation of the body when it is taken out of its normal upright position. It is initiated by the vestibular system, which detects that the body is not erect and causes the head to move back into position as the ...
Falling cat problem. A falling cat modeled as two independently rotating parts turns around while maintaining zero net angular momentum. The falling cat problem is a problem that consists of explaining the underlying physics behind the observation of the cat righting reflex . Although amusing and trivial to pose, the solution of the problem is ...
The vestibulospinal tract is part of the "extrapyramidal system" of the central nervous system. In human anatomy, the extrapyramidal system is a neural network located in the brain that is part of the motor system involved in the coordination of movement. [2] The system is called "extrapyramidal" to distinguish it from the tracts of the motor ...
The domestic cat has a smaller skull and shorter bones than the European wildcat. [49] It averages about 46 cm (18 in) in head-to-body length and 23–25 cm (9.1–9.8 in) in height, with about 30 cm (12 in) long tails. Males are larger than females. [50] Adult domestic cats typically weigh 4–5 kg (8.8–11.0 lb).
The brain of the domesticated cat is about five centimetres (2.0 in) long and weighs 25–30 g (0.88–1.06 oz). If a typical cat is taken to be 60 cm (24 in) long with a weight of 3.3 kg (7.3 lb), then the brain would be at 0.91% of its total body mass, compared to 2.33% of total body mass in the average human.
This is observed in reflexes such as the startle reflex, which provides an automatic response to an unexpected stimulus, and the feline righting reflex, which reorients a cat's body when falling to ensure safe landing. The simplest type of reflex, a short-latency reflex, has a single synapse, or junction, in the signaling pathway.