Have you ever wondered whether your cat or dog might be right or left-pawed? It turns out there's an easy way to find out. Place a treat in a narrow container and observe which paw your pet uses to fish it out. According to various studies, male animals often favor their left side while females frequently prefer their right—though many species turn out to be ambilateral (the animal equivalent of ambidextrous).
Hand (or paw) dominance shows up in a surprising range of creatures. Around 85–90 percent of humans favor their right hands, which puts us in the same category as most chimps, gorillas, baboons, and ring-tailed lemurs. On the flip side, Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkeys, de Brazza's monkeys, and orangutans often lean left. This contrast may reflect each species' lifestyle: the righties are typically found on the ground, whereas the lefties prefer trees. According to one theory, early tree-dwelling primates relied on their left hand for food and branch-grabbing, stabilizing themselves with their right. As some evolved to live on solid ground, they gradually became right-hand dominant.
However, not every animal follows this pattern. Slow lorises, despite being arboreal, tend to use their right hands. Hanuman langurs live on the ground yet favor their left. And it's not just primates: glossy black cockatoos hold seed cones with their left foot, walruses forage with their right flipper, and red-necked wallabies reach for food primarily with their right paw. As for one particular cat? She decided the experiment was beneath her—opting instead to meow until she was fed.