If your cat loves to greet visitors, she’s probably “outgoing.” If he hides from company, he might be considered “skittish” by researchers who have identified five major cat personality traits.
The same group of researchers using GPS collars to track the movements of indoor-outdoor cats say that knowing which type of cat you have can help you accommodate their needs, according to a report by ABC News.
Researchers at the University of South Australia say the five major personality traits are skittishness, outgoingness, dominance, spontaneity and friendliness. They also claim that cats tend to be either sedentary–sticking close to home–or wandering.
One of the cats in the study, Bagheera, owned by school teacher Louise Davy, is a friendly cat who likes to wander. He is one of 400 cats enrolled in the university’s Cat Tracker project.
The findings indicate that letting your cat outside dramatically increases the risk of injury and accidental death. “Those wandering cats that go further, they show more signs of being in fights, they cross more roads, and they bring home more prey, typically,” researcher Dr. Philip Roetman told ABC News. Roetman is seen here with a cat collar and model cat used for demonstration purposes.
