Guardian: Feline uncertain? Cats do give clues if the fur's about to fly, study finds
Study of 105 pairs of interacting felines decodes the cat behaviour that puzzles humans – and flags up the unsubtle battle cry of claws and yowling
Kittens play and test out their powers. Photograph: Melanie DeFazio/Stocksy United
Nicola Davis Science correspondent
@NicolaKSDavis
Thu 26 Jan 2023 12.16 EST
First published on Thu 26 Jan 2023 11.00 EST
When cats get together it can be difficult to tell rough and tumble play from a full-blown scrap. Now researchers say they have decoded feline behaviour to help owners spot when the fur might be about to fly. Dr Noema Gajdoš‑Kmecová, first author of the research from the University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy, in Košice, Slovakia – a cat owner herself – said understanding feline interactions could be difficult.
“Many owners are asking themselves the question, are these cats playing, fighting? Or what’s going on actually? We found out that there was actually very little scientific evidence to guide us in answering this question so we decided to go for it and study inter-cat interactions,” she said.
Writing in the journal Scientific Reports, Gajdoš‑Kmecová, and colleagues, describe how they examined the behaviour of 105 pairs of interacting domestic cats recorded on videos collected from YouTube. They also advertised for cat owners.
The researchers randomly selected 30% of the videos and analysed the cats’ actions to produce six behavioural categories, including wrestling, chasing, vocalisations, and motionless postures such as crouching. Each of the cats in the full sample were then assessed for these categories.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jan/26/feline-uncertain-cats-do-give-clues-if-the-furs-about-to-fly-study-finds
= new reply since forum marked as read
But I'm bookmarking nonetheless. Thanks! 
Last edited Mon Jan 30, 2023, 01:17 PM - Edit history (1)
Silver was green with envy when I adopted her from the same kill shelter he is from.
Here it is some 7 years later and I still hear the occasional "fake" cat fight going on. It sounds horrible and they race around chasing one another. Silver likes to get her in the garage where he can play hide and seek with her. Some times it does get rough!
I just noticed yesterday that Missy has a patch on her front leg where the hair is missing. It is not irritated like a wound would be. Its just a bald spot. I wonder if some of her antics with Silver recently caused her to get the fur rubbed off of her? 
I don't much like these fake cat fights and I hope that Missy's bald patch regrows the fur on it soon.
Unsure as what to do as where I live there are few veterinarians seeing pets these days. I know that sounds odd, but that's the reality of things around here. 