Question: Are cats aware that they're related to other cats?

Kevin Mahon answered on 11 Jun 2012:

Good question! Generally, most animals have the ability to detect close relatives by scent or other traits. This is like a built in ‘fail safe’ to prevent inbreeding, which is when closely related animals breed any produce less genetically fit offspring.

However, obviously, cats have inbred at points! So sometimes a cat will mate with a close relative, possibly because it wasn’t able to detect their scent or for some reason we just don’t know! I suspect cats that have been raised together in the same litter as kittens would be less likely to make this mistake!

General rule of thumb however – it’s a huge evolutionary advantage for animals to be able to tell who their family are. As cats are one of the most successful animals in the world in terms of numbers and diversity, it’s safe to say cats have this ability!