Cats instinctively twist in the air to land on their feet. In one recorded case, a cat survived a fall from the 32nd floor of a skyscraper in New York City. However, falling from great heights does not always end well for these furry creatures.
In a study published in the Journal Of The American Veterinary Medical Association, researchers analyzed 132 cats that survived falls from the fifth floor and above. The results showed that a third of them would not have survived without emergency medical assistance.
The researchers noted that the number of injuries sustained from falls decreases with increasing height. Starting from the seventh floor and above, domestic cats sustain less severe injuries. The scientists have two hypotheses explaining this phenomenon.
The first hypothesis is that cats reach terminal velocity after falling from a height of seven stories (21 meters) and stop accelerating. The maximum falling speed of a cat is 90-95 kilometers per hour, while for a human it reaches about 195 kilometers per hour. During acceleration, a cat tenses its muscles and arches its back as if sensing danger. This posture increases the risk of injury. However, upon reaching terminal velocity, the animals relax, increasing their surface area upon landing, which, in turn, reduces the likelihood of injury.
The second hypothesis suggests that cats falling from the seventh floor and above are more likely to die, leading to their absence in veterinary clinics and making it difficult to compile accurate statistics. Nevertheless, this does not negate the fact that the average number of injuries sustained by pets falling from heights between the seventh and thirty-second floors is lower than from falls below the seventh floor.
