Cat owners may enjoy the sweet sight of their pets grooming each other, but a recent study has found that perhaps this may not be as friendly as first thought. Morgane Van Belle, a researcher who studies animal behaviour at Ghent University in Belgium, conducted a study by analysing videos of 106 cats, looking at four behavioural groups including communication and interaction, postures and movements, ear positions, and tail movements. The results found 20 per cent of allogrooming – grooming between cats – occurred on their ears which caused the cats to rotate their ears backwards, which can be a sign of irritation or fear. It was also found allogrooming served to clean the cats rather than act as a social bonding exercise, with 87 per cent taking place on the head and neck, a place difficult for cats to groom themselves. Allogrooming serves to clean cats rather than act as a social bonding exercise (Getty/iStock)Ms Van Belle said: “Cat research is about 20 years behind dog research, there are still a lot of questions to be answered.“They have these very subtle ways of resolving conflict. To me, that shows they are intelligent and flexible in their behaviour, rather than simply being jerks.”The video footage, which was from 53 households and included 64 male and 42 female cats, also showed the cats leaning over one another while the cat being groomed turned their ears backwards, shook their heads and in some cases even bit. This suggested grooming can be used to bully other cats. Cats receiving allogrooming without reciprocating indicated unwanted physical touch through their body language. Despite this, Ms Van Belle said: “For me, it shows that they are quite elegant in the way they resolve conflict.“They could walk over and swat another cat in the face to get the blanket it is lying on. Instead, they lick it a little and fuss around.”The study findings suggested grooming can be used to bully other cats (Getty/iStock)The researcher was inspired to do this work by her own two cats, who competed over a sunny spot and one cat choose to lick the other rather than using aggressive tactics. The study did show indications of social bonding and affiliation as well, with signs of cooperative interaction which may lead to a strong social bond. However, this was only seen in 13 out of 53 pairs of cats. The research, which contradicted previous works suggesting there is malice intent behind grooming, was published in the Applied Animal Behaviour Science Journal.