Planet Earth

Do Cats Have Facial Expressions? Cats May Not Have a Poker Face After All

Do cats have facial expressions? New research shows that cats actually do express many emotions on their face, similar to humans and dogs.

By Ulrike Lemmin-WoolfreyDec 5, 2023 12:30 PM
funny cat looking shocked with mouth open portrait on green background with copy space
(Credit: Nils Jacobi/Shutterstock)

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Our understanding of cats, their behavior, and their ways of communication is still in its infancy. While cat domestication has been around for over 10,000 years, dating all the way back to Ancient Egypt, there is still a lot we don’t know about our feline friends. And the pets seem, at first sight, to have only one facial expression: aloof.

But research is slowly catching up. A recent study carried out by researchers at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has found that when interacting together, cats show a total of 276 unique facial expressions.

Do Cats Have Facial Expressions?

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