Mouse Not Fearing Cat, Expecting Real-Life Itchy and Scratchy Late 2008
Filed under: Japan — Malcolm Owen @ 7:19 pm
Japan is full of cool people. Some because of their designs. Some from sheer weirdness. In this case, it’s the scientists, as those boffins from Tokyo University have managed to make a cat and mouse be in the same location without the mouse running away in fear.
They managed this strange feat by genetically mutating a mouse’s sense of smell so it couldn’t smell the cat. Cue the mouse moving up to and playing with the cats, despite the possibility of being eaten. The cats, I’m sure, were trying to work out what the catch was from this “Free Meal”, instead of chowing down.
Apparently this “Proves” that fear is genetically created rather than learned behaviour. I think this proves that the cats they chose to sit with the mice were not hungry.
Experiment Cats - FAIL!
[Via Discovery News]