Cat Paw Print Science Fair Projects

Animal Prints

Animal prints can easily be used to identify a species. However, can they be used to identify an individual?

Water & Soil Microbes Experimenter Kit	DNA Extraction Kit	EDU-36820 C2D Discovery Planet Digital Microscope	Discovery Planet EDU-41021 Maxscope Videoscope	Student's Microscopes
Age 10 +	Age 12 thru High School	Ages 10 and up	Ages 4 -12	Ages 8 thru Adults

Objectives/Goals

The objective is that if cat paw prints are unique, then I will be able to identify a cat from its paw prints.

Methods/Materials

In my procedure, I used six cats in this experiment. My parents let one of them walk across a piece of glass and eat some salmon. I did not know which cat it was. I lifted this cat's paw prints using magnetic fingerprint powder, tape and a 5x7 card. I picked out the best paw print and drew a chart of the lines, marks & ridges on it paw. Using ink and 5x7 cards, my mother and I then got paw prints from each suspect cat. I blew up each paw print on our copier and drew charts of the lines, marks & ridges for each cat. I now had something to compare.

Results

I used a magnifying glass to visually compare the lines, marks & ridges of the Crime Scene Paw Print to each of the Suspect Cat Paw Prints. It matched Suspect Cat-A's paw print exactly. To double check this result, I drew the lines, marks & ridges of the Crime Scene Paw Print onto a transparency. I laid the transparency on top of each Suspect Cat Paw Print and again Suspect Cat-A#s paw print was an exact match.

Conclusions/Discussion

In conclusion, I proved that of the six cats in this experiment, it was Suspect Cat-A who ate the salmon. This shows that cats do have unique paw prints. In future research, I wonder what would happen if I used a larger cat population? Also, are the lines, marks & groves in cat paw prints are like the minutiae of human fingerprints? Can human minutiae be used for identifying cat paw prints? 3rd party contributor