Cats can distinguish their owner using only their sense of smell, according to a study in Tokyo

Domestic cats respond differently to their owner’s scent than to that of an unknown human, suggesting they can identify those they know based on scent alone.

A study published by PLOS One led by a team from the Tokyo University of Agriculture found that felines spend more time sniffing the scent of a stranger than that of their owner.

The team used thirty domestic cats to whom they presented plastic tubes containing swabs that had been rubbed under the armpit, behind the ear, and between the toes of their owner or a human they did not know.

Thus, they observed that the animals spent much more time sniffing unfamiliar odors than those of their owner or an empty tube.

Researchers also found that, initially, they sniffed unknown odors more with their right nostril, but switched to the left as they became familiar with the smell.

The fact that cats prefer to investigate new smells with their right nostril suggests that they may favor different hemispheres of their brain for different tasks, a phenomenon that has been previously demonstrated in other animals, including dogs, fish, and birds.

The team also asked the cat owners to fill out an online questionnaire to assess their pet’s personality and the relationship they had with it.

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Male cats with stranger or more anxious personalities tended to sniff each tube repeatedly, while the more agreeable ones did so more calmly. However, no personality effect was observed in the behavior of female cats during the experiment.

Furthermore, they observed the characteristic rubbing (marking) behavior that occurs after sniffing, indicating that this may be an exploratory attitude that precedes the rubbing of the scent by the animal.