A new study by an international team of animal behaviour specialists suggests that cats who reluctantly allow their owners to stroke them could be more stressed out than moggies who carefully avoid being petted.

某国际动物行为研究组织最近发布的研究结果表示，那些被动的让主人抚摸它们的喵星人，比尽量避免被抚摸的喵星人更容易产生焦虑。

The surprise conclusion arose in a study conducted by researchers from the University of Lincoln, UK, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and University of Veterinary Medicine, Austria, which aimed to better understand how cats cope with living alongside humans and other felines in a single household.

这个惊人的结论来自一项由英国林肯大学、巴西圣保罗大学、澳大利大兽医大学共同合作的研究项目，该项目旨在更好的了解猫是如何处理与身边的人类、以及同居一室的其他猫的关系的。

Although many people consider cats to be solitary creatures, the collaborative research, published in the Journal Physiology and Behavior and presented to an international audience in Portugal in September 2013, revealed that cats can live happily together in groups, and that the number of cats is not necessarily a problem.

这项研究结果已经登载在美国权威杂志《生理学与行为》上，在2013年9月于葡萄牙举行的全球第十四届欧洲进化生物学协会上，研究者向各国学者宣布了这项研究成果。该研究成果还表明，尽管许多人认为猫是喜欢独居的动物，然而事实上，许多猫可以和谐的群居在一起，猫群的数量并不会给它们带来困扰。

Evidence was also found to suggest that the owner's urge to pet their cat may be a stressful experience.

研究者们还找到证据证明，特别喜欢抚摸宠物的主人可能会给宠物造成焦虑。

Professor Daniel Mills, Professor of Veterinary Behavioural Medicine at the University of Lincoln, said: "We chose stable households to look into this question and were quite surprised by the results. Despite typically living on their own in the wild, we have known for some time that cats come together when resources like food are concentrated in a single area, for example when people feed strays. However, it might be that they do this out of need and it is still stressful for them, because they are not a naturally social species.

林肯大学的兽医行为医学专业教授、丹尼尔 米尔斯教授说，“我们选择了那些稳定的家庭还进行此项研究，研究结果的确出乎意料。众所周知，猫在野外会自力更生，我们也已经知道，当食物等生活资源在一个地区相对集中时，猫会聚众在一起，例如当人们喂养流浪猫群的时候。但是，也许它们这样做是出于需要迫不得已，而且它们仍会对群居感到焦虑。因为它们生性就不是群居动物。

He added: "It seems that those cats on whom the owner imposes him or herself are the ones we need to be most concerned about. The results also reinforce the importance of ensuring that you give all individuals control over their environment, so if you have several cats you should give them the choice of sharing or having their own special areas to eat, drink and go to the toilet."

他补充说，“似乎那些被主人强行抚弄的猫才是最值得我们关注的。我们的研究结果也提醒主人们，要保证家里的每只猫都能掌控周边环境。所以如果你家里有多只猫，你应该尊重它们单独或共享的各种区域，比如饮食的区域、或者排泄的区域。”