I know the title is poorly worded but I can’t really think of how exactly to word the question.
I was watching a cat try to find a place to sit that wasn’t covered in snow and it made me think about how humans wipe off snow covered seats or just dirty seats in general.
Is that a uniquely human thing or are there other animals that exhibit similar behaviors?
Racoons clean their food.
Is that why that video of the raccoon losing cotton candy in a stream exists?
He was given more cotton candy and eventually figured out that it can’t go in water and ate some dry.
Racoon sure got that share https://piped.video/watch?v=eesxH2-8Jlo
On the contrary, in French it is raton-laveur, which translates to washing baby rat.
“Wipe” is a bit of a stretch and a bit specific when it comes to animal behavior, but many animals do clean their food or clean their living quarters in a variety of ways.
In addition to the other examples already given, I’ll toss Eusocial Insects into the ring. This includes groups like bees and ants that live collectively in colonies. For example, honeybees will clean their colony’s comb to keep it free of debris. Leaf cutter ants depend on a specific type of fungus that they cultivate for food, and they spend a lot of effort keeping their farmed good nice and sanitary.
My cat wipes the condensation off windows so she can look out.
That sounds fuckin adorable.
Mine just scream at me until I clear the window for them 💀
Dogs get ready for bed by clearing their sleeping area or arranging to their liking.
I’ve seen that before but don’t really feel it’s the same. Like if the area was covered in snow or dirt would they clear it out or just lay in it?
Cats will 100% “wipe off” a place to sleep or shit or be adorable little assholes. If something is in their way, they will move it out of the way. Same with brushing dirt/dust/litter out of the way
Snow is a special case because it is cold and wet. Moving the snow out of the way will still leave them with a cold and wet place to sleep.
I’ve seen them play with small objects or push things off counters but never seen them fully clean an area of small particles.
Maybe I just never really paid attention ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
To add the opposite of this, cats do cover up their feces in the wild very well, and housecats will in a litterbox too instinctually. To hide their scent so they don’t get eaten.
It’s all about needs. Humans became the top of the food chain and stopped needing as much, so we started doing other things. Also in the wild if there’s wind then there won’t be as much on things, dust really only starts to gather once walls are built (or in caves I suppose.)
