Cats are known for being independent animals.

They often spend their time alone in hiding. Where do they hide? If you go around your house searching, you might find them in some very interesting spaces. A hamper, an old Amazon box, a drawer, or something else bizarre. Basically, they love small spaces and, as it turns out, there is a scientific explanation why.

The long-standing theory is that cats love boxes because it allows them to de-stress.

Funny to think, because they generally squeeze into a spot that looks uncomfortably small. Imagine your stress level if your pants are too tight? It clearly doesn’t work for everyone.

Back in 2014, the University of Utrecht put this theory to the test. They studied shelter cats with and without hiding boxes and examined stress reduction for shelter cats.

What they found will not surprise you.

Laying in boxes does, in fact, reduce cats’ stress levels. The researchers carried out a study at a Dutch shelter, involving 19 shelter cats, 10 of which had a box with them.

The researchers explained their findings:

“Stressful experiences can have a major impact on the cats’ welfare and may cause higher incidences of infectious diseases in the shelters due to raised cortisol levels causing immunodeficiency. Though several studies showed a preference for hiding places and stress-reducing effects of hiding boxes on cats in combined studies, none of these studies determined if proper hiding enrichment would be effective in a quarantine cattery.”

They noticed that the group of cats that had hiding-boxes adapted much quicker in their new environment. The cat stress level was determined by using the Kessler and Turner Cat-Stress Score (CSS).

After just a few days the cats with boxes recorded a much lower CSS. However, all the cats’ stress scores leveled to the same over a few week’s time. It really shows that cats use hiding spaces, such as boxes, to adapt to their environment faster.

The science was able to conclude:

“The hiding box appears to be an important enrichment for the cat to cope effectively with stressors in a new shelter environment the first weeks after arrival.”

Scientists stated that further study is needed to determine what effect the hiding box has on house cats, its long term effects, and correlation with outbreak frequencies of infectious diseases.

There are some other reasons cats love boxes that weren’t covered in this particular study.

Remember that cats are predators. They use their natural ability to hide and to stalk their prey. A box is a great place to feel like they are ready for a hunt. Therefore, cats get a sense of comfort and security from enclosed spaces, and some research suggests, as we’ve read, that boxes even decrease feline stress levels.

Another reason why cats love curling up in small and uncomfortable spaces, is that it helps them preserve their body heat. The thermoneutral zone for a domestic house cat is 86 to 97 degrees Fahrenheit. Did you know that happens to be 20 degrees higher than ours?

Therefore, getting into a tiny box may serve as a smart heat-saving strategy as well.

Overall cats are just hilarious.

We love having them around because of their big personalities. They also are adorable and they make for great pictures. We hope you enjoyed looking at these cat models with their favorite boxes.

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Source: Bored Panda, Science Direct