A domestic cat grooming itself by licking its fur clean

Personal grooming, sometimes called preening, or simply grooming, is the art of cleaning, grooming, and maintaining parts of the body. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1600x1067, 426 KB) Cat cleaning itself File links The following pages link to this file: Cat Hygiene Grooming ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1600x1067, 426 KB) Cat cleaning itself File links The following pages link to this file: Cat Hygiene Grooming ... Trinomial name Felis silvestris catus (Linnaeus, 1758) The cat, also called the domestic cat or house cat, is a small feline carnivorous mammal of the subspecies Felis silvestris catus. ... The word lick can mean more than one thing. ...

In humans

Main article: Hygiene

Grooming in humans typically includes bathroom activities such as primping: washing and cleansing the hair, combing it to extract tangles and snarls, and styling. It can also includes cosmetic care of the body, such as shaving and other forms of depilation. Hygiene is the maintenance of healthy practices. ... A typical American bathroom A bathroom is a room that may have different functions depending on the cultural context it is used in. ... Young Girl Fixing her Hair, by Sophie Gengembre Anderson Hair, is a filamentous outgrowth from the skin, found only in mammals. ... A razor shaving some stubble off the underside of a chin. ... Depilation is a generic term for hair removal which affects the part of the hair above the surface of the skin. ...

In animals

Individual animals regularly clean themselves and put their fur, feathers or other skin coverings in good order. This activity is known as personal grooming or preening, a form of hygiene. For example, combing through the hair or feathers, ensuring they lie smoothly against the skin, and extracting foreign objects such as insects, and leaves, dirt and twigs, are all forms of grooming. Phyla Subregnum Parazoa Porifera (sponges) Subregnum Agnotozoa Placozoa (trichoplax) Orthonectida (orthonectids) Rhombozoa (dicyemids) Subregnum Eumetazoa Radiata (unranked) (radial symmetry) Ctenophora (comb jellies) Cnidaria (coral, jellyfish, anemones) Bilateria (unranked) (bilateral symmetry) Acoelomorpha (basal) Orthonectida (parasitic to flatworms, echinoderms, etc. ... A section of Human Skin In zootomy and dermatology, skin is an organ of the integumentary system made up of a layer of tissues that guard underlying muscles and organs. ... Hygiene is the maintenance of healthy practices. ... A foreign object is a professional wrestling term for an object introduced into the match. ... Classes & Orders See taxonomy Insects are invertebrate animals of the Class Insecta, the largest and (on land) most widely-distributed taxon within the phylum Arthropoda. ... Look up dirt in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Among animals, birds must preen each of their feathers daily to remove parasites, keep them in good aerodynamic condition, and oil them. They use the oil secreted by the uropygial gland in order to preen themselves. When an oil spill affects penguins they are dressed in knitted sweaters to stop themselves preening. Orders Many - see section below. ... For other uses, see Feather (disambiguation). ... A parasite is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life in or on the living tissue of a host organism and which causes harm to the host without immediately killing it. ... Volunteers cleaning up the aftermath of the Prestige oil spill An oil spill is the intentional or unintentional release of oil (generally, petroleum) into the natural environment as a result of human activity. ... Modern Genera Aptenodytes Eudyptes Eudyptula Megadyptes Pygoscelis Spheniscus Extinct Genera, see Classification Penguins (order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are an order of aquatic, flightless birds living in the Southern Hemisphere. ... Categories: Stub | Oil spills ...

Grooming as a social activity

Main article: Social grooming

Many social animals adapt preening and grooming behaviors, for other social purposes such as bonding, social structure enforcement, or dispute resolution. Humans also use verbal means, such as gossip and flattery for the same purpose. In social animals and humans social grooming is a major social activity, and a means by which animals who live in proximity can bond and reinforce social structures, family links, and build relationships. ... A social animal is a loosely defined term for an organism that is highly interactive with other members of its species to the point of having a recognizable and distinct society. ... In telecommunication, the term bonding has the following meanings: In electrical engineering, the process of connecting together metal parts so that they make low resistance electrical contact for direct current and lower frequency alternating currents. ... Social structure (also referred to as a social system) is a system of social relations. ... Dispute resolution is the process of resolving disputes between parties. ... Look up Gossip in Wiktionary, the free dictionary The word gossip may refer to: the act of spreading news from person to person, especially rumors or private information: see chat the news spread through the act of gossiping While gossip forms one of the oldest and (still) the most common... If you know one, count yourself lucky. ...

See also

• Animal behavior
• Hygiene
• Social grooming

Template:Social-stub Ethology is the scientific study of animal behaviour (particularly of social animals such as primates and canids), and is a branch of zoology. ... Hygiene is the maintenance of healthy practices. ... In social animals and humans social grooming is a major social activity, and a means by which animals who live in proximity can bond and reinforce social structures, family links, and build relationships. ...