In cat-raising families, such scenes can be seen every day: cats squat in the litter box and carefully dig sand to bury their excrement. This seemingly simple daily behavior is actually engraved with the survival code of natural selection for tens of millions of years, and is the survival wisdom condensed in the evolutionary history of cats.
The behavior of burying excrement originated from the survival strategy of wild cats. The unique pheromones in wild cat excrement will expose key information such as individual body size and health status. On the African grasslands, this smell may attract natural enemies such as hyenas, or cause territorial disputes among the same species. Archaeological studies have shown that traces of deliberately turned soil layers appeared next to saber-toothed tiger fossils dating back about 1.3 million years ago, confirming the evolutionary origin of burying behavior in ancient times.
The burying behavior of modern domestic cats presents complex social attributes. In a multi-cat family, the weaker individuals will bury their excrement more carefully and avoid conflicts with the stronger individuals by eliminating scent marks. Studies have shown that when cats use their front paws to dig up cat litter, the pheromones released by the glands between the paws and the chemical signals in the excrement form a composite mark. This double-encrypted "smell code" can not only meet the marking needs, but also adjust the intensity of information transmission.
This ancient instinct has produced new adaptive expressions in the domestic environment. When cats refuse to bury their feces or deliberately expose their excrement, they may be declaring their family status by retaining scent marks. Animal behaviorists have found that using cat litter that is too fine or contains fragrances will cause 20% of cats to have burying difficulties, which shows that modern product design needs to respect the evolutionary instincts of cats. Understanding this behavioral code can help humans arrange the location of cat litter boxes more scientifically, choose appropriate cat litter, and build an ecological space where people and cats can live in harmony.
