Predator–prey relationships have been suggested to be one of the primary evolutionary factors driving the development of functional hemispheric asymmetries. However, lateralization in many predator species is not well understood and existing studies often are statistically underpowered due to small sample sizes and they moreover show conflicting results. Here, we statistically integrated findings on paw preferences in cats and dogs, two predator species within the Carnivora order that are commonly kept as pets in many societies around the globe. For both species, there were significantly more lateralized than non-lateralized animals. We found that 78% of cats and 68% of dogs showed either left- or right-sided paw preference. Unlike humans, neither dogs nor cats showed a rightward paw preference on the population level. For cats, but not dogs, we found a significant sex difference, with female animals having greater odds of being right-lateralized compared to male animals.

食肉动物与猎物的关系被认为是驱动功能性半球不对称性发展的主要进化因素之一。但是，许多捕食者物种的侧向化作用尚未得到很好的理解，并且由于样本量较小，现有的研究通常在统计上功能不足，而且显示出相互矛盾的结果。在这里，我们对食肉动物中两个捕食物种猫和狗的爪子偏爱进行了统计综合研究结果在全球许多社会中通常作为宠物饲养的动物。对于这两个物种，明显多于非偏侧动物。我们发现78％的猫和68％的狗表现出偏左或偏右的爪子。与人类不同，狗和猫在人口水平上都没有表现出向右的爪子偏爱。对于猫而非狗，我们发现性别存在显着差异，与雄性动物相比，雌性动物右偏的几率更大。