In 1894, French scientist and cinema pioneer Étienne-Jules Mare created the movie below, thought to be the first ever film of a cat. Mare was obsessed with chronophotography, a Victorian photographic technique popular among scientists studying motion and as reference for artists. Mare built his own chronophotographic gun, seen below, that captures 12 images each second. From Wikipedia:
Using these pictures he studied horses, birds, dogs, sheep, donkeys, elephants, fish, microscopic creatures, mollusks, insects, reptiles, etc. Some call it Marey's 'animated zoo.' Marey also conducted the famous study about cats always landing on their feet. He conducted very similar studies with a chicken and a dog and found that they could do almost the same.
