Cats Don't Need Humans As Much As Dogs: Study

A new study on cats has affirmed what has been known for centuries- felines are more independent than dogs.

According to NBC News, researchers gauged dependence of cats on their owners by replicating a psychological experiment originally conceived for humans. By placing cats in a room with strangers, researchers measured the degree of dependence in presence and absence of owners. They found that cats are highly unpredictable but more often than not they did not pine for their owners unlike dogs which are attached to humans for safety and security.

"Although our cats were more vocal when the owner rather than the stranger left them with the other individual, we didn't see any additional evidence to suggest that the bond between a cat and its owner is one of secure attachment. This vocalisation might simply be a sign of frustration or learned response, since no other signs of attachment were reliably seen. In strange situations, attached individuals seek to stay close to their carer, show signs of distress when they are separated and demonstrate pleasure when their attachment figure returns, but these trends weren't apparent during our research," said Daniel Mills professor at the University of Lincoln School of Life Sciences.

The researchers however cautioned the study does not cast cats as less loving towards their owners than dogs. They instead said that the human-cat bond is rooted in something else other than safety and dependence.