National Geographic Analyzes Cute 'Mom Hugs Kitten' Cat Video Scientifically
Amanda Fiegl, of National Geographic Blog, decides to get to the bottom of the questions "do cats have nightmares, and do moma cats hug their babies as we seem to see in this cute video, or are we seeing anthropomorphic projection gone wild?Cat Hugging Kitten Video, What's Really Going On?
This youtube video went viral last week, and has been viewed over 28 million times.
This brief, adorable home video of a sleeping kitten and its mother has gone viral in the past week, attracting more than 18 million views on YouTube. The user who first uploaded it (dragomirnet86) titled it “Cat Mom Hugs Baby Kitten,” and another version is titled “Cat Hugs Baby Kitten Having Nightmare.” To find out if feline science backs up that anthropomorphic explanation, we talked to Dr. Nicholas Dodman, director of the animal behavior clinic at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. (In the past, he’s also helped us analyze another viral video of a piano-playing cat.)
Q: Folks who’ve commented on this video seem convinced that this kitten is having a nightmare. But do kittens really have nightmares, or dreams at all?
A: Well, the kitten’s clearly dreaming. It may not be a nightmare, it may be running after a mouse; we’ll never know. Naysayers will say: You can’t prove cats dream. But if you measure brainwaves in cats, dogs and several other animals, it’s clear that they go through a period of rapid-eye movement, or REM sleep, when the brain is very active. In humans, exactly the same thing happens—and that’s when we dream.
Q: And what does the mom’s reaction look like to you? Is she really “hugging” the kitten?
A: Mummy is doing what mummy cats do. Like humans, they sort of fall in love with their babies—the hormone involved is oxytocin, it’s involved in all sorts of bonding, even between humans and their pets—so she’s cuddling up and keeping her baby close. She seems to be in slow-wave sleep, not REM, and the kitten’s movements seem to disturb her slightly. One limb happens to be under the kitten, and she puts her other paw across and feels the presence of her baby. To me it’s a perfectly natural example of maternal care and affection to a kitten who’s dreaming. You could refer to it as a hug. They’re mutually bonded and I think they enjoy the presence of each other. Human analogies are not entirely inaccurate.
So there you have it folks. Science has spoken. Cats dream, and Moma Cats seem to love their babies just like many human moms do.
The question that remains unanswered is why we humans love to watch them so much.
At, 28 million views in the last week, this "mama cat hugging her kitten" may have received more attention than the first 1500 years of the bible, and Representative Anthony Weiner's photos, as hard as that may be to imagine.