Research overview: modular organisation of the feline predatory sequence

The cat's hunting behaviour is organised as a sequence of partly independent modules: searching, stalking, chasing, pouncing, grabbing, killing, and consuming. This overview surveys research on how these components are separable, can be triggered independently, and are differentially coupled to hunger and motivation, drawing on classic ethology and modern behavioural studies. It discusses how the modularity explains surplus killing, prolonged prey play, and the persistence of hunting in fed cats, and how toys engage specific modules. It connects the structure of predation to development through play and to enrichment design. The topic clarifies why feline predation is best understood as an assembly of semi-autonomous behavioural units.