Research overview: the tail-up signal in domestic cats

The raised, vertical tail is one of the clearest visual signals in cat social behaviour, and this overview surveys research establishing it as a friendly, affiliative display. It examines studies, including experiments with silhouettes, showing that cats respond positively to a tail-up posture and that the signal precedes approach, rubbing and amicable interaction between cats and toward humans. The survey discusses how the tail-up is thought to derive from kitten-to-mother behaviour and to function as a greeting and intention signal that reduces aggression in the relatively social groupings that domestic cats can form. By compiling this evidence, the survey presents the tail-up as a key example of how cats, often considered poor visual communicators, possess a clear postural signal central to friendly encounters with conspecifics and people.