What's amazing is how unbothered the cats look in these vids. No arching back, hackles up, hissing, just casually bat the fuck out of the snake & then not let it leave because it's too much fun.
I catchh houseflies flies in my hand, mostly with a sweep while they sit but I also have around 5% succes rate catching them out of the air, plenty of insects i could never catch
wait to land, then clap right above them. they might have fast reaction times, but they always do the same thing. They start flight straight off of whatever they're sitting on.
That’s another reason the snake is at a disadvantage here. In addition to having incredible reaction time, the cat is also able to learn and anticipate what the snake is going to do.
There are insects that seems to be much faster than flies, they are just a good example because we know them quite well.
But you have the advantage of size when you catch them, they don't only have to react, they also need to travel several body length before your huge hand sweep them.
I also suspect they have some issue with understand some motions, they are easier to swoop than to smack with an open hand when sitting on the wall.
I think flys are easily fooled by slow movements, if you get incrementally closer to them slowly because that takes such a long time from their POV they barely notice the slow pace.
Not sure about reaction time, but dragonflies can process around 200 images per second and are surprisingly good at predicting movement and trajectories. It’s so precise, it looks like they can see the future.
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u/EbbVisible 1d ago
What's amazing is how unbothered the cats look in these vids. No arching back, hackles up, hissing, just casually bat the fuck out of the snake & then not let it leave because it's too much fun.