The evolutionary reason why dogs are more responsive to humans than cats

Business Insider spoke with John Bradshaw, anthrozoologist and author of "The Animals Among Us," about why dogs are far more responsive to humans than cats are.

Bradshaw said: "Cats are somewhat less responsive than dogs to their owners. There are obviously exceptions there are very responsive cats but this essentially stems back to their evolutionary lineage."

"Dogs are descended from wolves which are very social animals so right from the word go, they’ve had a basis for understanding the body language of the animals around them, whether the animals around them are other dogs or indeed whether they’re humans."

"Cats had a different starting point they were originally solitary predators and they only really became sociable with one another probably during domestication, so perhaps only 5,000 years ago or something. So they have much less of an evolutionary basis for understanding our body language, for understanding our intentions and so on."

You can find out more about John Bradshaw's book here.

Produced and filmed by Jasper Pickering. Research by Fraser Moore. 

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