@pastelexuvia I can report that my pet lizard (a Northern blue-tongue skink) wandered over to investigate the thing I had made on the floor, and then just walked away again. He was interested in it, but not drawn to sitting in it.
@pastelexuvia (footnote: A thing he does have in common with cats is that he also likes to sit (or, well, "plop down" is probably a more accurate description of what a blue-tongue does) in boxes - though apparently a taped square doesn't look sufficiently box-like to him!
Cats and blue-tongue skinks both exhibit positive thigmotaxis - eg. feeling calm and safe when they can feel something all around them, like if they're squeezed into a box or a little cave.)
@datarama amazing. thank you for your contribution 🫡
@pastelexuvia I suspect there's a little bit of cat in him. He has solved a cat puzzle feeder, he will chase some kinds of cat toys, and he likes to eat wet cat food. (But he isn't scared of cucumbers. In fact he'll eat them.)
@pastelexuvia This is him. My phone was dead when I did the tape experiment so I didn't capture it.
@datarama !!!! calm baby!!
@pastelexuvia He's 18, so not really a baby anymore. :-)
But yes, very calm. He's absolutely fearless about humans; he will wander into my arm on his own, and likes to lick people's noses.
Here, have a blue blep!
@datarama @pastelexuvia I'm excited to learn a word for this because apparently I too exhibit positive thigmotaxis.
@ShaulaEvans @pastelexuvia It's actually quite common for creatures who aren't either apex predators or extremely large.
Some animals also seem to experience active fear of being in open spaces (geckos, for example, or most snakes). But even in those who don't (or who somehow overcome that fear), many simply seem to find comfort in feeling squeezed in.
Igor here doesn't fear open spaces at all - he'll happily wander around and explore everything from the apartment floor to a grassy park. But he also prefers the smallest sleeping cave he can get, and always sleeps with as much of his body as he can pressed up against the walls.
@ShaulaEvans @pastelexuvia (Footnote: On one of his summer park excursions, he *has* done something a bit like the cats sitting in taped squares: He spotted some humans with a picnic blanket, and he resolutely beelined over and plopped himself down on their blanket. It was *very* clear that something in his brain simply *demanded* that he go sit on that blanket.
(fortunately, the humans were friendly. One of them even got to scritch his neck a bit.)
@datarama @pastelexuvia Aw. ❤️
@datarama @pastelexuvia As I am very much not an apex predator nor extremely large, this still tracks. 😂
I have genuinely always loved being in tiny spaces and now, in my isolation life, it's one of the few things that helps with the skin hunger.
Tell Igor I'm sending him thigmotaxic solidarity.