Alison has drawn my attention to this video showing a cat lapping milk in slow motion. The professor explains that the cat doesn’t scoop up the liquid like a dog would, but uses the tip of its tongue – the liquid adheres to the tongue and is drawn up in a thin column. The cat is making use of some sophisticated fluid mechanics to drink.
It’s a very clean way of transferring liquid from the bowl to the mouth, rather fitting for a creature whose fourth most important activity is cleaning itself (the other three more important activities being sleeping, eating, and staring out of the window). A whole lot less messy than a dog. However, it also looks a whole lot less efficient.
A rather fun result, but I don’t think its a new finding. There are plenty of online videos showing exactly the same thing.