So, this is a thing.

Some time around July, this cat video went viral. The video features an unsuspecting cat happily eating a meal. The cat looks towards the camera then— bam—jumps in fright after it realizes that a monstrous object was behind it all along. What object could possibly be more horrifying than the vacuum cleaner?

A cucumber. An innocent, inanimate cucumber.

This video may have sparked a movement. For whatever reason, the Internet thought it was a good idea to test out on their own cats and share videos of the “experiments” to YouTube. (I guess on one hand, citizen science is a good thing? But on the other hand, stressing your cat out for Internet fame also makes you an asshole.).

And guess what? They discovered that this wasn’t an isolated incident—tons of cats reacted in a similar manner. That same month, a community was created on Reddit called Cucumbers Scaring Cats.

It’s full of what you’d expect—people sharing videos and gifs of cucumbers scaring cats. And this community takes cucumbers very, very seriously. Videos of cats being scared by similarly phallic objects—like bananas and dildos—are not allowed. (We’re not sure if pickles count).

Of course, various media outlets soon picked up on this community, bringing in cat whisperers and other “experts” to give their opinion on the cat cucumber crisis. Suddenly, this question was on everyone’s mind:

Of course, we like to answer the tough questions here on Upvoted so we had to investigate. The truth is, since there hasn’t been any scientific studies on cucumbers and cats, nobody really knows the answer, placing this investigation in a real pickle. That doesn’t mean we can’t speculate, however.

One user had an educated guess:

The question even stumped the director of the Feline Health Center at Cornell University, Dr. Colin Parrish, when we asked him—though he actually didn’t think the snake theory was too far off. Cats are not scared of the color green, but the shape of a cucumber could remind cats—big or small—of a snake.

Evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne agreed with the snake theory. He wrote on his blog:

“Here’s my hypothesis, which is mine: the cats have genetic predisposition to be scared of snakes—a disposition instilled in their distant ancestors by natural selection. Clearly, those wild cats lacking a tendency to avoid long, thin, and unrecognized objects wouldn’t leave as many genes behind as cats having genes for a startle reflex.”

This theory most likely stems from a 2001 study on primates that suggests the mammalian brain is prewired to be fearful of snakes, originating from a time when our early mammal ancestors had to survive in a reptilian world.

Former Cornell University professor and veterinary behaviorist Dr. Katherine Houpt, disagrees. Houpt researched cat behavior and now heads the Animal Behavior Consultants of North Michigan.

“Cats are not naturally afraid of snakes,” she shares. “Unless the snake is very big, but it would have to be much longer than a cucumber. In fact, felines hunt snakes. And since their main enemies are dogs and coyotes, there hasn’t been much evolutionary pressure to be fearful of reptiles.”

While cats are not known to be afraid of small snakes, cats are fearful of dogs, loud noises, and strange places. And they also become easily upset when you change anything about their routines (e.g. a surprise cucumber placed right behind them while eating).

But Houpt wasn’t sure of the exact reason why cats were frightened by cucumbers in the videos: “Nobody has done a scientific experiment on that. I’ll go put a cucumber behind my cat and see what she does,” she says. “That’s right, cat. You are going to have to perform!”

Houpt continued to narrate the experiment, live, while she was on the phone with us:

“The cat is very happy she is being fed earlier.”

“Now she is turning around [to face the cucumber]. She is VERY suspicious. This is a cat who never turns down a meal.”

“Now she is eating.”

“She turned around [again] and paid absolutely no attention to it. I’m not sure she even saw it.”

“Okay, now she is sniffing it. What do you think, is that a scary object? Of course, this is a 15 lb. cat. She may be less afraid of anything.”

“Now she is lying on top of it [laughs].”

In conclusion?: “My cat had absolutely no reaction, except to sniff it. I don’t think it is very strong cat behavior. Cats, like people, have different personalities.”

Houpt adds that some cats are genetically predisposed to be fearful, while others are bold and curious (like her cat). And it’s a behavior that is apparently not learned (but can be modified)

She goes onto explain that cats have been known to exhibit a similar reaction to plastic bags placed on the floor—some are afraid, some cats urinate on it, and others simply don’t care.

“I think if you take a nervous cat and put something strange in front of it, then it reacts as if it were frightened,” Houpt says. “Don’t stress the cat out! What is the point!?”