Cat Behavior Time Lapse Videos

Time lapse videos compress time. When the video is of a cat you can see more clearly some of the nuances of cat behavior. For example, the cat who is supposedly totally inactive (to the casual glance) is not. Cats lounging in the sun and snoozing are actually quite alert. One of the obvious signs is the movement of the ears as they rotate towards a sound. Apparently there are 32 muscles that control a cat’s ear flap. It is like radar. When did you last move your ear voluntarily? Some people can but most of us can’t because the muscles just don’t function anymore, if there are any.

When the cat picks up a sound that might be meaningful he looks up. This is not sleeping as we know it, is it? Cats snooze lightly, almost not sleeping at all for long periods. Then dozing off and waking up again, not long afterwards. You know when a cat is asleep – they snore or make sleeping sounds.

In the second video, below, this short time lapse video shows a cat, Loki, looking out of the window of a high rise apartment (it seems) and at first looks out, intently; looking down. Then Loki chooses to rest and finally leaves the window sill.

Cat time lapse is interesting because cats do a lot of things that are very low key. We can miss the action! Click on the link to see indoor cat behavior over ten hours.

Below is a totally professional time lapse trailer by one of the best in the business. It is awesome. Time lapse sheds light on cat behavior and things that are invisible to us.

The above video shows us how wonderful the natural world and the universe is. The cat time lapse videos provide an insight into cat behavior.

How do you make time lapse videos?

Time lapse is a series of many thousands of still images joined together by software. You attach a device to your camera which controls the camera. It takes a photo every second or whatever duration you have set.

The camera is usually on a tripod. Apple Mac computers have built in software to make a time lapse video from a long series of photos. You’ll need a heavy weight camera and computer though as the process is quite demanding on processors.

The timing device for the Canon – in my case a Canon 7D – is a Canon Timer Remote Controller TC-80N3. There are probably others.


Note: I have to warn visitors that embedded videos (as these are) sometimes go black because the source is removed for various reasons.

7 thoughts on “Cat Behavior Time Lapse Videos”

  1. The author of the best comment will receive an Amazon gift of their choice at Christmas! Please comment as they can add to the article and pass on your valuable experience.
  2. Really enjoyed the videos Michael never ceases to amaze me what can be acheived with todays technology. I loved the sky moving on the 2nd one and the cats ears on the first just never stopped!! Fab!

    Reply
  3. These are beautiful to watch. I find my cats are almost always aware of what I am doing. There is usually only one time of day or night when they sleep heavily enough that I can be doing something and they know nothing about it. Alot of the time they just open there eyes and move their ears if I get up in the night to go to the bathroom – except Molly who demands cuddles at 2 am in the bath and nowhere else. I think they get some rest from this half sleep though, its kind of like meditating actually. Probably they have some kind of though process or images or dreams but they are not totally asleep. It
    s quite nice to do that sometimes as a human 🙂 – just to lie with your eyes closed and rest your brain a bit without going to sleep.

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  4. Yes these videos are fascinating, cats don’t miss one single thing do they!
    I usually come off my computer around 6-6.30pm to spend a bit of time with our boyz before they go off on their evening stroll.
    Jozef seems to be fast asleep, head tucked away in the chair he loves, but the moment I close my computer down, even before getting up to unplug it he jumps out of his chair and runs across to me. Then I hear Walter coming downstairs from his snoozy place in Barbara’s computer chair and moments later she appears too.
    Sometimes our cats look at something we can’t see, which is a bit scary, they are so very sensitive and probably think we humans are quite stupid creatures at times lol

    Reply
    • Obviously cats do sleep soundly but a lot of the time they look asleep they are not. Their ears are often alert to sounds. They can certainly pick up sounds better than me. When Charlie pricks his ears up I have neither heard nor seen anything.

      Reply
  5. It is fascinating watching the cats in time lapse. Those radar ears are amazing. I often wonder how the cats don’t get bored with their long lounging habits. These videos show exactly why. They don’t miss a sound, or movement. It is like they are constantly participating in the world around them. The first cat spent more time looking inside the house than out the window. Interesting.

    Nice morning entertainment, thanks,

    Reply
    • What interests me is that people say cats sleep for 14-18 hours a day. But are they really asleep as we define the word? I think this 14+ hours a day sleep is exaggerated because when Charlie sleeps on my bed at night he is not sleeping deeply. I can call him over or touch him and he immediately responds.

      Reply

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