If you’ve been browsing Facebook, Twitter or Vine recently you may have noticed the new ‘trend’ of cats being scared of cucumbers.
Owners have been pranking their cats by sneaking a cucumber behind their cats as they eat for their furry friend to turn round and leap several feet into the air.
Obviously the cucumber poses no danger to our feline co-habitants, but why do they get so spooked by veggies?
Dr Roger Mugford, an animal behaviour specialist, explained to the Metro that the cat’s reaction isn’t cucumber specific and that even a pineapple would trigger this reaction.
He said: “I think that the reaction is due to the novelty and unexpectedness of finding an unusual object secretly placed while their heads were down in the food bowl.”
He added: “Cats have to be suspicious of the unknown: It could represent the danger of a snake or another predator. I suspect that there would be the same reaction to a model spider, a plastic fish or a human face mask.”
Though it’s not encouraged to purposely spook your cat it so far hasn’t stopped these ‘cucumber vs cat’ videos from going viral!
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