When you hug, hold, squeeze, and pet your cat, you’re probably vaguely aware, maybe just in the back of your mind, that you’re actively trying to improve your quality of life by engaging in a pleasant activity. But something might be happening on a deeper, hormonal level that boosts not only your mood but your cat’s, too.

According to research published in iScience by a Kyoto University team, previous studies on whether cats actually make our lives better have been a bit of a mixed bag. There’s enough science to strongly suggest that dogs offer health benefits that stick around for quite a while. But research on cats’ health benefits, like the animals themselves, is complicated and inconsistent.

To figure out why cat ownership’s perks are harder to pin down, the researchers tracked 19 human and cat pairs for a month using Bluetooth tracking beacons and urine samples to check in on any biological effects.

Your Cat’s Brain Chemistry Could Be Affecting Your Mood, New Research Suggests

They found that simply owning a cat doesn’t magically turn your brain into a blissful utopia. But something fascinating is happening, and you need to be in close physical proximity to your cat to reap the benefits.

The study found a direct hormonal link between humans and cats: higher oxytocin in cats correlated with lower cortisol and fewer negative vibes in humans. Oxytocin is the hormone associated with bonding, and cortisol is the hormone that triggers stress.

In other words, the more your cat feels your bond, the less stress you’ll feel in turn. The researchers found such a close connection between the two that a cat’s oxytocin levels tracked an owner’s bad mood more closely than the owner’s own biochemistry did.

This is, of course, a good example of small-sample-size theater, and it all amounts to correlation rather than causation, but excuse me for snuggling your kitty just a little bit more tightly tonight.

The post Why Spending Time With Your Cat Feels So Good, According to Science appeared first on VICE.

Monkeys, they’re just like us! Yes, we share a ton of genes, but socially, researchers recently found monkeys from groups that lived through a deadly outbreak became much more wary of tainted food afterward. Now you’re starting to see why Taco Bell is still trying to recover from that tainted lettuce scare.

As The New York Times described them, they’re basically “germaphobe monkeys,” an apt nickname for the Japanese macaques observed in a study published in Royal Society Open Science.

When a virus tore through a South Texas macaque sanctuary, three out of four monkey groups watched their neighbors suffer and die from a disease spread through bites and scratches. Once the epidemic faded, cognitive scientists from the University of California, San Diego set up an experiment, the results of which they detailed in a press release.

Offered they macaques two food choices, food on a clean surface versus food on a board covered in feces.

Scientists Discovered That Monkeys Become Germaphobes After Surviving a Deadly Outbreak

That’s an easy choice for you, but for the macaques, a little s—t on their food isn’t usually a deal breaker. Monkeys that hadn’t been exposed to the virus happily eat the poop-covered food 79 percent of the time. But macaques from groups that survived the outbreak and witnessed its horrors only ate the poop-covered food 47 percent of the time.

Sure, if you knew someone who ate poop-covered food 47 percent of the time, you would think they were deranged. But again, these are monkeys, and 47 percent is crazy low.

What’s so fascinating here, and what’s so weirdly human about this phenomenon, is that the initial virus that wiped out so many of the monkeys wasn’t transmitted through food at all, and yet, like so many of us in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic who were furiously scrubbing down groceries in hopes of eliminating all traces of what would ultimately turn out to be an airborne virus, the monkeys that survived the outbreak turned into hypochondriac neat freaks, and justifiably so. They had undergone a severe trauma, and they were mitigating potential vectors of infection.

The researchers say that the psychological defense mechanism stems from something called the “behavioral immune system,” which triggers disgust in the brain to ward off perceived threats. When we went through a global pandemic that shut down the world, we went apes—t with the hand sanitizer. After the macaques went through their own tiny version of a pandemic, their sense of security was on high alert based on past trauma.

Strongly suggesting that avoidance of potentially disease-ridden stuff is a learned social behavior, potentially handed down from mother to baby, the researchers found that former pets and lab-reared monkeys were more willing to eat the dirty food. Poor things. They never had a mama to teach them not to eat food covered in poop.

The post These Monkeys Survived a Deadly Outbreak, Then Started Acting a Lot Like Humans appeared first on VICE.

Thanks to a team of heroes, a southern ground hornbill, belonging to Amsterdam’s Artis Zoo, is now flourishing with a brand-new prosthetic beak. The bird received two 3D-printed prostheses, as both the upper and lower portions of his natural beak were broken. In a press statement, Artis penned that, while other birds have been the happy recipients of prosthetic beaks, “As far as is known, this is the first time in the world both parts of a bird’s beak have been restored in this way.”

While the young bird of honor valiantly managed to persist adequately enough in his everyday life prior to the surgery, the zoo confirmed that his behavior was restricted, and he couldn’t care for himself all that well. Obviously, the southern ground hornbill relies on its beak for purposes as preening and foraging, thus he had trouble picking up certain pieces of food.

Fortunately, the bird began using his new beak the very same day it was attached. Before continuing with the article, you can see below that the heartwarming medical miracle means that he’s already back to grossing some of us out by preying on mice.

View this post on Instagram

This Bird Got a Brand-New 3D-Printed Beak, and He’s Already Putting It to Work

The life-altering procedure was performed by Artis, Utrecht University, UMC Utrecht, and Amnovis. The artificial beak was developed with the help of a CT scan and preserved sections of the bird’s original beak. Both plastic and titanium elements were incorporated. The NY Post adorably applauded the “im-peck-able performance.”

Of course, Artis is keeping an eye both on the bird and his female partner in order to make sure that all continues to go swimmingly, though they are prepared to step in if any issues occur.

Now, watch the complex procedure for yourself! Warning: Although it’s unbelievable, it just might be a bit disturbing for animal lovers to see the anesthetized bird.

View this post on Instagram

The post WATCH: Scientists Gave an Injured Bird a Second Chance With Two 3D-Printed Beak Prosthetics appeared first on VICE.

The 36th Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade took place yesterday, and there were some adorable photos to show for it. It was clear that the human participants absolutely adored their canines. However, it is important to remember: Our idea of fun might not quite align with our pets’. Retailers love to sell consumers on cuteness, but chances are that your pet is cute enough as is. Animals can bite, scratch, and bark, but they don’t have the ability to say no to hideous, annoying, and possibly dangerous attire. Humans aren’t the only ones who can experience sensory overload, and some of their fashion choices could give any sentient being a heart attack…

Buy your pet an appropriate treat instead of subjecting him to the upcoming Halloween rituals that might be harmful. That means do not feed your animal candy. Give him a quiet space in case all the new and unfamiliar invading presences trigger fear. Also, keep away any decorations that could be chewed through, especially wires.

Now, so that your quadrupedal friends stay healthy this October, here are 5 reasons why the scrooge I am suggests keeping them costume-free.

1. DistresS

You might think your pet looks content, but he might very well feel uncomfortable and humiliated. Although he may be attempting to tolerate the hands that feed him, again, he probably didn’t give you his consent to be the butt of the joke, meaning dressed as Tinkerbell or a donut. Animals have dignity, and we all know just how brilliantly they can discern our emotions, even if your tradition of taking Instagram photos proves utterly baffling to them, as it should. If you treat them like cheap entertainment at their expense, they won’t trust you.

2. Risk of Swallowing

Most of us are aware that animals aren’t always great judges when it comes to what should go in their mouths. Especially if they’re trying to rip off the annoying getup you’ve placed them in, they could swallow elements of it. Think of all the different, sometimes toxic materials and embellishments that could pose choking hazards. A badge, a bell, a pom-pom, or a plastic accessory could become dangerous.

3. Overheating

Yes, your animals can easily become overheated. If you were already wearing a fur coat, would you want to have someone load you with even more gear? That devil dress may quite literally be hot as heck.

4. Too restrictive

Your furry companion may end up at the vet if you choose to put him in clothing that is too tight around the chest or throat. Costumes can restrict your household protector’s movement as well as his ability to communicate with you (making it harder for you to read his discomfort) and process his surroundings. Anything that interferes with the eyes, ears, and tail will be cause for anxiety. When it comes to cats, for example, even the whiskers must be left alone. When animals feel restrained, they can accidentally harm themselves. Similarly, elements of their outfits might trip them; those shoes you picked out might not fit those ultra-sensitive paws as well as you think. While many animals may be able to wear costumes without any damage and even seem to enjoy them, why would you risk a potentially negative outcome?

5. Allergies & Skin Agitation

Halloween looks are often incredibly cheaply made, and, accordingly, your animal just might be allergic to the horrors in which you’ve so brazenly decided to drape him. The mere act of allowing certain fabrics to rub against your pet’s skin can cause rashes, which, in turn, will make him scratch the affected area.

The post 5 Reasons You Should Think Twice Before Dressing Your Pet Up for Halloween appeared first on VICE.

We’ve long known that humans are susceptible to something called the “bouba-kiki effect,” a weird trick of the brain that links the nonsense words “bouba” and “kiki” to specific shapes. “Bouba” feels soft and rounded, while “kiki” feels sharp and spiky, both looking a little like comic-book impact effects, or stars, with solid centers surrounded by spokes. Not that you needed me to explain that. You probably already imagined it.

As it turns out, a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences suggests dogs might be just as susceptible to this weird quirk of the brain as we are.

Researchers at the University of Parma gathered 51 domestic dogs and their humans to test whether the dogs share this quirk of the brain. Sitting in a room flanked by screens displaying the respective shapes, the dogs listened to a human voice broadcast the nonsense words while cameras and AI tracked their gaze.

When “bouba” played through the speakers, the dogs lingered on the rounded shape; when “kiki” dropped, they stared harder at the spiky shape.

Dogs and Humans Share a Strange Brain Quirk, New Study Finds

To make sure the owners weren’t influencing the results, the researchers reran the trial with owners wearing headphones blasting rock music. The results stayed the same.

The first cohort showed only a mild overall bias toward the spikier “kiki” shape, which the scientists attribute to the fact that dogs’ faces look much more angular and pointy than ours. This goes hand in hand with humans showing a similarly slight bias toward “bouba,” since we’re used to seeing rounded features.  But in the second test, where the human owners wore headphones, the dogs were just as likely to think of “kiki” as spiky and “bouba” as round as we were.

This suggests that whatever drives our ability to associate sounds with symbols isn’t exclusive to us, as recent studies also show that baby chicks and even macaque monkeys seem to agree that “kiki” is spiky and “bouba” is round. This sensory wiring could be shared across species.

Who knows, maybe other animals associate the sharpness or roundness of words with the sharpness or roundness of shapes?

The post How Your Dog’s Brain Works More Like Yours Than You Think, According to Scientists appeared first on VICE.