Why do cats land on their feet?

It’s actually a myth that cats always land on their feet; some of them can be downright clumsy. But it is true that cats are very good at landing on their feet, and through the use of slow motion cameras, scientists have been able to figure out why.

The key to a cat’s amazing balance is in its flexible spine. You have only to watch a cat move to see how flexible it is (some people once thought that cats were the descendants of furry snakes), and its that flexibility that allows a cat to perfom its spectacular landings.

When a cat starts to fall, the first thing it has to do is figure out which way is up. It does that very quickly using its eyes and inner ear for balance. Then it twists its head to line up the right way. Its tucks in its front legs and twists them with the head, but the back legs are still at an angle.

Then the flexible spine acts like a spring to bring the back legs in line with the front. As the back legs are twisting, the cat stretches out its legs and arches its back. When it lands, the arch in its back acts like the shock absorbers on cars and absorbs most of the force of the impact, so the cat is not hurt.

Strangely, some veterinarians noticed that cats who had fallen out of high rise windows were actually less hurt than cats who had fallen out of medium height windows. They figured out that when cats fall from a higher distance, they have time to reach freefall and relax their bodies, and relaxed cats can actually absorb more impact than tense cats.

Which explains why jungle cats can survive falls from tall trees!