This nifty feat would put any human Olympic gymnast to shame. A falling cat will instinctively try to right himself from head to tail, first rotating his head into the proper position (to sport the ground) and then sequentially spiraling the rest of his body so all his feet are oriented to the ground.
As the body gains the right position, the cat will spread his legs in a sort of flying squirrel fashion and relax his muscles in anticipation of landing. Spreading the impact over four points is considerably better than hitting on one, and a cat's cushy joints enable him to absorb a lot more impact than we mere humans can.
A cat's ability to rotate in midair isn't a fool-proof strategy for surviving the perils of modern living, however. Veterinarians have long noted and studied what's called high-rise syndrome-the tendency cats have of being better able to survive falls from greater heights than lower ones.
The most dangerous falls are from between two and six storeys. Amazingly enough a few urban cats have survived falls of up to 30 storeys, albeit with severe injuries - broken legs and jaws, and collapsed lungs.
The difference may well be in the cat's ability to set himself up for the best possible landing, in the way that all cats have been doing for generations.
You see, that 'rotate and relax' manoeuvre takes time to implement. From the lower floors, it's thought a cat hasn't enough time to prepare himself for impact by getting himself in a proper landing position. From the highest floors, the fall's too great to survive. In between, however is a margin of survivability for the cat who lands on his feet.
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