Humans didn't go out of their way to study 'cats when they first arrived on Sphinx.

For example Wolpe studied cats to build his theory of human anxiety.

Juan Jimenez is studying mentation of Terran dogs, cats and primates, and Freyan kholphs and Mimir black slinkers.

In 2006, she appeared alongside Nigel Marven in one episode of Prehistoric Park in which she traveled back 10,000 years to study sabre-toothed cats.

He studies cats in movement and draws them.

'Roger, I didn't have much time to study the fauna of Mars - and I certainly didn't study flat cats, beyond making sure that they were harmless.'

Even people who haven't studied cats closely will recognize certain "words" in Ailurin: the rub against a friendly leg, the arched back and fluffed fur of a frightened cat, the crouch and stare of the hunter.

Researchers studying cats living in the wild have found that the characteristics of a cat's father partly determine those of its offspring.

That's how we learned to make such fool-proof gravity generators on our starships--by studying cats.