I have written about this before but not seen such a good example on video of a kitten learning how to do things by direct observation of his mother. The first 30 seconds are the key bits of this video where you see the kitten copying his mother’s actions who is grooming herself.
This video should also tell us about our relationship with our cat. They will learn the odd thing from us. It is said that meowing as a request is a learned process from domestication. Cats learn about our activities and it helps in their decision making. For example when I go out into the garden I do certain things and my cat sees these as signals that I am going out and he prepares to accompany me. There are many examples of this sort of observational learning. Do you have one to share in a comment?
Note: the video above may go blank because it may be in breach of YouTube rules as lot of people steal the videos of others and present them as their own. Therefore I present the Daily Mail version below as a back up. They too have stolen the video unless they got permission first, which is unlikely:
I saw this some weeks ago, and it is so adorable.
It’s true that baby kits imitate their mothers. That’s how they learn to be cats.
I can’t think of any species of animal where the mothers aren’t foremost in the development of their young. Ducklings waddle after their mothers; turtles the same.
It is a great example of kitten copying mother. It is quite rare to see that on video.