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David Muir
Edinburgh, UK
A pair of carrion crows (Corvus corone) visit my garden and have trained me to feed them. When I throw them scraps, they skip towards the food using an asymmetric gait called unilateral skipping, with the same leg always to the front. This was the foot-travel of choice for Apollo astronauts on the moon’s surface. Both feet are simultaneously on the ground within the stride pattern, unlike in running, where both feet are never on the ground simultaneouly, so this probably improved balance under the lower lunar gravity.
One of the crows would skip to the food leading with its left foot and, while feeding, hold the food with its left foot. The other would lead with its right foot and hold the food with its right. This “handedness”, “footedness” or, more correctly, laterality isn’t that uncommon in birds.
Scientists at the department of biological sciences at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, found that larger-bodied species of parrot that eat large seeds, requiring manipulation with a foot to extract seeds from seed pods, have a strong tendency to be either right- or left-footed. Small-bodied parrots, which eat small seeds and flowers, don’t have a foot preference because such food doesn’t need to be manipulated by a claw.
Paul Stapleton
Santa Fe, New Mexico, US
I volunteer as a judge at the many science fairs organised by schools in my state. Projects range from the simple (how long does ice take to melt) to the extraordinary (reducing the acoustic signature of the B-1 bomber). This season, I judged an 8-year-old’s project on, you guessed it, the handedness of cats.
It was a rather elegant experiment. She collected a load of felines from friends and family, put a few kitty munchies in a bottle in an empty room, then shoved the shaggy subjects in one at a time and spied on which hairy limb they used to retrieve the tasty treats.
Being cats, some couldn’t have cared less and went to sleep. However, of those cooperative moggies that did participate, about 80 per cent were right-pawed, but there was indeed a clear percentage of left-pawed pussycats. (Sex of the furry purries wasn’t noted – next year maybe.) My girl proved her theory and won a prize at the district fair.
I have to admit that I’m not an unbiased observer here. My Maine Coon, whose name is Molly, demands that I pick her up in the mornings while I am reading New Scientist in the bathroom so she can ride around on my left shoulder, happily digging her claws into my flesh. Sure enough, every single day for the past five years, she has initiated her pleading with her left paw.
Adrian Kirkup
Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK
Having been the proud servant to a number of cats during my life, I can hand-on-heart tell you that most, if not all, have been left-handed, or southpawed. They are, like humans, quite capable of using both paws when required, but when reaching out, the preference is for the left front paw to be used.
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Having been the proud servant to a number of cats during my life, I can tell you that most, if not all, of them have been left-handed
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