--- title: How real cats hunt: stalking, waiting and pouncing — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «How real cats hunt: stalking, waiting and pouncing», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Watch a cat with a toy mouse: it crouches low, its pupils go huge and round, its bottom wiggles, and then it shoots for --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/119-how-real-cats-hunt/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / How real cats hunt: stalking, waiting… # How real cats hunt: stalking, waiting and pouncing Lesson 119 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/119-how-real-cats-hunt/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/119-how-real-cats-hunt/0/) — Watch a cat with a toy mouse: it crouches low, its pupils go huge and round, its bottom wiggles, and then it shoots forward in one quick pounce. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/119-how-real-cats-hunt/1/) — That is a hunter's body doing what it was built for. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/119-how-real-cats-hunt/2/) — Real cats mostly hunt by waiting, not chasing: a cat may sit perfectly still beside a hole in the garden for an hour, ears swivelling to catch the faintest scratch, because waiting saves energy and a still cat is hard to notice. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/119-how-real-cats-hunt/3/) — Its tools are amazing: eyes with a shiny mirror layer that makes them glow green in a torch beam, ears that turn on their own to point at a sound, and whiskers that sweep forward around the prey at the moment of the catch. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/119-how-real-cats-hunt/4/) — Kittens learn from their mother, who brings them prey to practise on, and even a pet cat that sleeps most of the day on the sofa may still catch a bird in the garden at dawn or dusk. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/119-how-real-cats-hunt/5/) — Just before a pounce a cat wiggles its bottom to set its back feet evenly and test its grip, which gives the most power in one leap; a cat can jump about five or six times its own height. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/119-how-real-cats-hunt/6/) — Cats often hunt by sitting and waiting near a place where prey will come out, which uses much less energy than running; pet cats often wait a long time and catch nothing. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/119-how-real-cats-hunt/7/) — A cat's pupils open wide in dim light or when it is excited and shrink to thin slits in bright light; slit pupils, which small cats have, can close very tightly in sun and open very wide at dusk, while lions have round pupils. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/119-how-real-cats-hunt/8/) — Cats can see in about one sixth of the light people need, but in total darkness a cat sees nothing, just like you. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/119-how-real-cats-hunt/9/) — Behind a cat's retina (the back lining of the eye that senses light) is a shiny layer called the tapetum that bounces light back through the eye for a second chance, which causes the eye-shine; people have no tapetum, so our eyes do not shine green; road «cat's eyes» reflectors copy the idea. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/119-how-real-cats-hunt/10/) — Each cat ear has about 30 muscles and can turn on its own to pinpoint a sound, and cats hear very high sounds, including mouse squeaks, far above what people hear. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/119-how-real-cats-hunt/11/) — Whiskers are thick, deep-rooted hairs full of nerves; cats cannot focus well very close to their noses, so the whiskers sweep forward to feel the prey for the last few centimetres, and cats also have stiff whiskers on the backs of their front legs. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/119-how-real-cats-hunt/12/) — Cats often chatter their teeth at a bird they cannot reach; scientists think it shows excitement or frustration, though no one is sure. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/119-how-real-cats-hunt/13/) — Cats often bat prey about before killing it, which keeps their face away from its teeth and claws; well-fed cats play longer, and hungry cats get on with the kill. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/119-how-real-cats-hunt/14/) — A mother cat teaches her kittens by bringing dead prey, then live prey, then hunting with them, and kittens play-fight and pounce on tails from about four weeks old as practice. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/119-how-real-cats-hunt/15/) — Pet cats hunt birds, mice, voles, lizards and insects, and in places like Australia and on islands cats have badly harmed small wild animals; a bright collar or a bell and keeping cats in at dawn and dusk help birds. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/119-how-real-cats-hunt/16/) — Cats sleep or doze about 12 to 16 hours a day to save energy for short bursts of hunting, and they are most active at dawn and dusk, when mice and many birds are on the move. - ← previous: [Tom and Jerry: do real cats really chase mice?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/118-tom-and-jerry-do-real-cats-chase-mice/) - next →: [How real mice survive: squeezing, climbing and hiding](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/120-how-real-mice-survive/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)