{"id":820238,"date":"2026-08-20T20:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T20:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/820238\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T20:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T20:16:08","slug":"scientists-find-hidden-messages-in-cat-pee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/820238\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Find Hidden Messages in Cat Pee"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"storyParagraph\">&#13;<br \/>\n                                        Researchers exploring the mysteries of cat urine say there appear to be messages hidden in the stink. A study published Wednesday in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cell.com\/current-biology\/abstract\/S0960-9822(26)00944-9\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Current Biology<\/a> reports that a set of chemicals in feline urine, called branched-chain fatty acids (BCFAs), forms a stable scent &#8220;signature&#8221; that lets cats distinguish one another by smell alone, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/animals\/cats\/cats-have-unique-chemical-fingerprints-in-their-pee\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Live Science<\/a> reports. Researchers observed that cats&#8217; flehmen response\u2014an open-mouthed sniff known to draw chemicals into the vomeronasal organ, which detects pheromones\u2014dropped as they repeatedly smelled the same cat&#8217;s urine, but increased when urine from a different cat appeared.&#13;\n                                    <\/p>\n<p class=\"storyParagraph\">&#13;<br \/>\n                                        When scientists separated urine into components, cats reacted specifically to the fatty-acid fraction, which was unique to each animal and stayed consistent for at least a day after a scent mark was left. Researchers identified 13 BCFAs, which appear in different combinations and proportions depending on the feline, acting as a chemical &#8220;calling card,&#8221; reports <a href=\"https:\/\/www.popsci.com\/environment\/chemicals-cat-urine\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Popular Science<\/a>. Interestingly, related cats had similar profiles, meaning family relations might be determined by a sniff. The chemicals appear to be stored in fat droplets in the kidney; big cats like lions and tigers use a similar system, suggesting it evolved across the feline family.&#13;\n                                    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; Researchers exploring the mysteries of cat urine say there appear to be messages hidden in the stink.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":820239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1067,339373,79785,79,28947],"class_list":["post-820238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-cats","tag-current-biology","tag-feline","tag-science","tag-urine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/820239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}