A nice video of a domestic cat climbing an indoor climbing wall. Of course there is no safety net or harness. If he falls he falls.
It is impressive even though we know that cats are superb climbers. It does make me question the whole thing though.
Cats do fall sometimes. Was it a good idea to place this cat on this wall? Why did the cat climb it? I guess he was put on the wall some distance up and he felt he had to go up because going up is easier that going down for a cat because of his claws.
Therefore the cat’s owner placed him on the wall to test his/her cat. Good idea for a video?
Cats do like to climb and I and think it’s a good exercise for them, whereas they might get very little in our sterile, do-nothing world, especially indoors. I’ve been thinking lately of just what kind of exercise I could provide for them, and something like this looks ideal (I’ve never climbed one of these walls but I believe they are on a forward angle, which makes it easier. I think if a human can do it, a cat should be able to and this one looks as though it’s having fun at the challenge. It isn’t looking down which is a sign of distress at the height. Cats are also remarkably cool when it comes to acrobatics despite the chance of falling. I’ll consider building such a wall for my cats. For exercise there’s also the circular treadmill; if I can figure a way to build it myself I’ll try that too. I think domestic cats really don’t get enough exercise.
Yes, cats are almost exclusively forward moving, especially when it comes to climbing. And yes I learned it’s because of the way the claws and perhaps their whole body evolved. Every ounce of ability toward survival was put into forward-ness. I’ve rarely seen cats move backwards; they do but are not good at it, which come to think of it is counter-intuitive for such a natural acrobat. Another animal, or fish actually that comes to mind that can’t move backwards well is the shark but obviously for a different reason. Michael you’re brilliant at all of these observations.