Research overview: hunger, arousal, and the regulation of predatory play

Predatory behaviour and predatory play in cats are only loosely coupled to hunger, a feature that has intrigued researchers. This overview surveys studies manipulating feeding state and prey-like stimuli to show that hunting motivation persists in well-fed cats, that hunger modulates intensity rather than gating the behaviour, and that the predatory sequence can be triggered by appropriate stimuli regardless of satiation. It discusses the adaptive logic of decoupling hunting from immediate hunger in an opportunistic predator and the implications for surplus killing and for enrichment. The topic explains why fed pet cats still hunt and play avidly and how motivation is organised in the feline predatory system.