Do Kittens Have Emotions?

Emotions are difficult enough to quantify in people, for while you may be able to state that you feel one way or another, a scientist cannot easily measure the accuracy of your statement. Emotions may be even more difficult to identify in cats and kittens, for they have no means of expressing themselves verbally, so researchers have remained divided on whether or not a kitten's body language indicates an emotional state, or is simply instinctive.

  1. Academic Approaches

    • Behaviorists look to the results of tests to prove the existence of emotions and, as such, generally reject any unproven suggestion that animals think or feel. Conversely, ethologists allow a certain amount of observation and anecdote to form their opinions. In an interview with the "Sunday Times," ethologist Marc Bekoff notes that Darwinian models of evolution favor a scientific view in which animals are capable of some emotion. He believes that the differences between one species of mammal and another, according to evolution, are differences of degree rather than differences in kind. Just as people have evolved to have brains, hearts and stomachs, so too have cats. While a cat's brain may work somewhat differently than a person's, its basic functions remain the same, so a cat may feel the cat equivalent of human emotions. Feline happiness or fear may not be perfectly identical to human-experienced happiness, but it manifests in mostly similar fashion.

    Affection

    • Kittens display attachment with each other, their mothers and owners.

      Dr. Nicholas Dodman, in an interview with "National Geographic News," says mother cats may display affection for their kittens, and vice versa. He notes that the hormone oxytocin is strongly involved in many types of emotional bonding. This bonding occurs not just between cats, but between humans and their pets as well. At times, when cats and kittens appear to display mutual bonding and affection, the hormone is measurably present.

    Fear

    • Cat's enter into distinctive behaviors when they become defensive, including cowering, vocalizing and aggression, which may indicate territoriality or fear. Feline fear, however, may manifest in simpler ways than human fear. For example, animals generalize fear easily. If a kitten becomes frightened by the sudden sound of a breaking glass or a noisy dishwasher, she may maintain a fear of the entire kitchen space thereafter.

    Dreams and Nightmares

    • A sleeping kitten may twitch or make sounds, leading observers to speculate that these are emotional responses to dreams, such as fear during nightmares. Although the kitten cannot wake and tell observers whether or not he was dreaming, some sleep patterns common to humans occur similarly in sleeping kittens. A period of rapid-eye movement, or REM sleep indicates an active unconscious brain, which is associated with the dreaming process in humans. If these activities have similar implications in kittens, the growing kitten's developing senses and experiences could be reproduced during sleep in the form of dreams.

    Loss

    • Many pet owners describe pet behavior in anthropomorphic terms. Grieving and loss over a playmate, for instance, may cause a domestic kitten to search the home and call out repeatedly for its lost playmate. Such behavior may indicate simple confusion over the sudden disappearance of the kitten's cohort, or it may illustrate a sincere reaction to the loss, whether that reaction is grief or loneliness.