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see this is the point of perception that I find most fascinating.
when I look at the initial photo presentation, even after doing the analysis, my instinctive reaction is "cat". and I *feel* a high degree of certainty about it. that reaction is still powerful... in SPITE of having done the detailed analysis and proven to my own satisfaction that it's a fox. even with my own proof, I have to think about the image each time to see the fox. the "cat" impression is quite distinctive and strong, even though I'm pretty darn sure, from an intelectual analysis, it's a fox.
this is what the trick of perception does... the initial impression plugs in to a very specific recognition of cats in my head. even though I understand it to be a fox.
my guess is that the iconic "cat" tail and low-creep posture are plugging into what is called the Reticular Activating System (IIRC) ... it's basically a very primitive part of our brains that is designed to rapidly match things we see to known identifiable patterns so we can decide if we should kill and eat it, run away from it, or breed with it. this part of the brain is strongly tied to emotional reaction because it needs to activate us to respond appropriately and immedately - it's a survival thing. if it takes too long to figure out, it may kill us, or escape our grasp, so this system is very fast, and plugs in to "action" chemistry. we tend to react much more definitively to reticular matched images than to thought-through or analyzed ones.
the military uses this very fast, very accurate matching system in our brains to train fighter pilots... pilots are trained to recognize the profile - the outline shape - of various aircraft they will encounter, including outlines from a variety of angles. by being trained to recognize these outlines, pilots can rapidly identify friend or foe, even if the object is moving very fast or seen for only fractions of seconds... an essential skill in air warfare, particularly of the fighter plane kind. this process specifically uses the reticular activating system, they're taking strong advantage of a skill that's hardwired in our brains.
so... my speculation is that the curved tail and creeping posture with the artificially shortened face matches my reticular map of "cat", and that's why my reaction, even when I know better, is still *strongly* cat.
it's also why folks *powerfully* attach to their interpretation of what they've seen, especially if only glimpsed briefly. if you have time to study a moving animal, and deploy the thinking / analyzing part of the brain, you can, well, observe and analyze. if you have only a glimpse, a different part of your brain is engaged, and that part is likely to be reticular, and may well trigger adrenaline, and it will create a stronger emotional response, and therefore attachment, to the match that is stimulated.
it's probably why the people who saw the swimming beaver, and ran because they saw "bears", still swear by what they saw. their reticular system didn't have a match for "beaver" so the nearest thing it came up with was "bear". the *apropriate* survival response (unless trained otherwise) is run away. big adrenaline dump, healthy dose of fear, a good sprint, and BEAR is now locked into their recall.
reticular matching a threat can activate adrenaline, and adrenaline can anchor memory in a powerful way. we're not too far from our survival wiring.
aaaaaanyway, just my observations on why this is such a passionatly debated predator... with so much certainty on so many different sides.
