The team are going to examine some strange goings-on
between the cats in Hanover Street…
to see if they can translate this language and decipher what they’re really up to.
Here’s one cat they’ve been watching for the last three weeks, Ozzy.
He was undisputed king of his half of the street…
until Prince appeared on the scene.
Ozzy’s losing his throne and he’s very grumpy about it.
It’s a younger male, a grey cat, who is a fighter.
His ear’s notched in a few places
and he doesn’t run away when Ozzy shouts at him.
The scientists didn’t know why Prince was prepared to fight
for his right to roam this particular street…
so they decided to put him under surveillance.
They asked the other owners what they knew.
He definitely lives on our street, doesn’t he?
He’s on Hanover… or he acts like he lives on our street.
If I leave the door open, he’ll try to break into my house
and eat Pussy-Cat’s food off him.
They found Prince spent more time on the street than almost any other cat.
I definitely recognise Prince.
He’s been meowing at our door to come in a few times.
Prince isn’t just meowing.
Cat behaviour expert Dr Sarah Ellis has spotted
some of the other ways he’s trying to communicate.
He spends a lot of time out on the street and he’s very, very confident.
You can see how he rushed over to the person here filming.
And what he’s doing here is what we call a social roll,
so, it is a positive behaviour
and we know that because the cat is exposing its stomach, its belly area,
and they wouldn’t do that if they felt very, very vulnerable,
if they were worried about that person, because that’s their most sensitive area.
And it isn’t just an exposed tummy on display.
Prince is also curling the tip of his tail.
Generally if the cat was in a really negative state,
the whole tail would be moving and thrashing.
The end of the tail is often…
For example, when a cat is friendly, the end of the tail will be curled round.
So, you’ll often see the soft tip of the tail.
Rumour has it that Prince’s owner has left him with flatmates while abroad.
So, is Prince trying to get noticed and find someone else to take care of him?
He’s been regularly coming round for about three weeks now.
He’s sweet and he’s normally very vocal and he’s very bold.
He definitely wants to come in.
I feel like he’s trying to sort of get a second home.
He meows at the door and I think he knows he’s with a cat lover
when he comes down here.
Cats like Prince are doing something remarkable.
They’ve learnt how to communicate with people
and that meows and body language are most likely to work.
And when they speak our language, we can’t help but love them.
Tilly is my aristocat. She’s long and elegant.
She’s got a touch of Siamese about her
and a lovely narrow little face and these lovely little ears.
They’re tapping into something deep rooted within us.
We love our cats because they love us.
They’re everything to me.
She’s like the last jigsaw of our family.
And she really makes our family be together.
