Animal Instincts: Decision Making

By Emmanuel Yegon

For so long, scientists have been troubled by the question of whether cats have brains or not. For so long, canine intellect has been considered superior over feline intellect as might have been depicted in the way in which dogs are easy to train to guard than cats which are easy to train to do simple tricks.

The focus, however, is not on the intellect of the dogs but rather the unique qualities that cats possess. Apart from their acute color and light sensitivity, their social patterns and their motivation. It is more of their response to negative stimuli. Cats, unlike dogs that would bark and run around to their master upon sensing danger, would take time to analyze the situation, determine the magnitude of the danger posed by the situation and device a course of action.

Take for example a case in which a snake finds its way into a house. If the dog sees the snake, it would bark, jump up and down around it wagging its tail until the master arrives. This sometimes is not effective in the sense that the bark may not easily catch the attention of the master. Cats on the other hand would handle the situation differently. A cat would look at the snake, take time to size it, evaluate the threat the snake poses to it and to the master, and whether it would manage to kill it.


What really transpires in the mind of a cat at such a situation? The cat has to “think critically” how and when to pounce on the snake bearing in mind the fact that the snake might be poisonous and that it would defend itself upon provocation. This is the same case with big cats in the wild; lions, leopards, cheetahs and tigers have also to consider lots of factors before deciding on the next moves to make in pursuing prey.

Is this the same case with human beings? Do we take time to analyze a situation in its entirety before taking action or making decisions? Sometimes we are so quick in making decisions that we find reasons to regret later on of which it would have cost nothing to think and evaluate all the possibilities and alternatives. Being rational beings with highly developed brains, we are expected to logically handle issues and more so problems in mature ways. Furthermore, we are to make informed and clearly and exhaustively reasoned-out decisions.

Conscience is what differentiates us from the cats and the rest of the animals. We have the freedom to distinguish between right and wrong and therefore we have within us the power of choice. However, we should borrow a leaf from the keenness of the cat in the way we handle our issues and especially how we go about addressing conflict and solving problems.