• Question: why do cats jump so high?

    Asked by to Thon, Catherine, James, Natalie, Shaylon on 19 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Natalie Pilakouta

      Natalie Pilakouta answered on 19 Jun 2014:

      Good question and this again has to do with cats’ evolutionary history! A lot of wild cats, which are close relatives of domestic cats, live in trees or spend a lot of time in trees to rest or take their prey there (one example are leopards). For this reason, cats have evolved strong back legs to be able to climb onto trees.

    • Photo: James Bell

      James Bell answered on 19 Jun 2014:

      Good answer Natalie, perhaps this has probably also got something to do with cat’s amazing ability to land on their feet – spending so much time in the trees (or up mountains like snow leopards) means that you have to be prepared to fall out once in a while!

    • Photo: Shaylon Stolk

      Shaylon Stolk answered on 19 Jun 2014:

      Cats actually coordinate the muscles in their back legs so that they can get the maximum ‘spring’ from their jump. When humans jump, our muscles don’t quite contract at the same time, so we don’t get as much out of our jump. Cat’s muscles work together very closely, so they can push off the ground with a lot of energy.
      You can see it really well here:

    • Photo: Anthony Caravaggi

      Anthony Caravaggi answered on 19 Jun 2014:

      I don’t know that I’d agree with the tree-climbing idea. Climbing trees doesn’t necessarily lead to an ability to jump high. It’s not the greatest example, but look at chimpanzees. They’re terrestrial (live on the ground) but do regularly climb trees. However, chimps are extremely poor jumpers. Or for a more relevant example, cheetah. Cheetah are surprisingly capable climbers but are far from prodigious jumpers. In addition, if we look at how muscles are used in each activity, jumping and climbing are two very different activities. Of course there are several cats, including leopards, who do both very well.

      I would instead suggest that those cats which are able to jump high evolved to do so to enable them to be better hunters. Many cats pounce on prey from a distance, whilst others are capable of taking birds in mid-flight. Perhaps the greatest jumper among the cats is the caracal, a widely distributed and utterly magnificent cat which can easily vertically leap over 3.5m, and, if you believe some reports, can go as high as 6m. Here’s a video of a caracal taking a guinea fowl in mid-flight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gKVuejyPe4

    • Photo: Catherine Offord

      Catherine Offord answered on 21 Jun 2014:

      I really like Shaylon’s video, here.

      One of the less biological consequences of cats jumping so high is that there are now cat competitions held worldwide where owners train their cats to jump over obstacles. Youtube is a wonderful place for cat videos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3dXT301i8k

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