Social media has gone crazy for the latest pet fad: trapping cats in squares made of tape stuck to the floor.

Twitter user Danielle Matheson said that her mom had discovered something neat on Pinterest: 'If you put a square on the floor, the cat will get in it'.

She tweeted two pictures of her mom's cat doing precisely that - and suddenly the web was filled with photos of fenced-in felines.

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Fun: On Monday Twitter user Danielle Matheson tweeted a text from her mom about her discovery that cats are drawn towards squares on the floor

Success: Danielle's mom tried it out - and it worked. For the following week, Twitter users posted up pictures of their own attempts, mimicking Danielle's mom's experiment

Shock: The discovery that cats are fascinated by the squares astonished some people, such as this Twitter user

Two's a crowd: Some people reported trouble when they tried it out using two cats - clearly the squares are too popular for crowds

Purrfect fun: This fluffy kitty began purring once in her square. Scientists aren't sure why cats gravitate towards floor squares, but it may be due to them seeing it as 'new' territory

'Be there, or be...' This cat seemed to turn its nose up at the thought of sitting in the square - but then did so anyway. It's also speculated that the smell of the tape may attract them

Angry dad: This owner thought his cat was unique. It wasn't. It's also possible that the desire to sit in squares is linked with cats' instinct to sit in boxes and other containers

Twitter quickly filled up with fellow cat-owners trying out the trick for themselves - with some professing delight and others disappointed that their cat was just the same as everyone else's.

'I am so mad this just happened,' write Ryan Nemeth after his cat obediently at in a tape rectangle.

Others noted that their cats seemed happier inside the squares than out of them, with some of the kitties purring once they were inside.

Not that it was all success stories - there were still plenty of photos of cats sprawled outside the squares, or not having made it inside at all.

The phenomenon of cats entering squares is a variation on 'cats in circles' - something that was noted around 2014, and now has its own Reddit group.

Exactly why they do so, however, is a mystery - and will remain so until scientists actually set about examining the phenomenon.

There are two compelling theories, however.

Magic trick: Judging by this person's experience, it's possible that the squares could be used to attract and contain hidden kitties

Staying power: This user found their cat still fascinated by the box two days after the original tweet - proving the longevity of the trick

Couldn't resist: This cat tried to walk past the square, but it apparently proved too temping to his kitty instincts

Thinking outside the box: Not everyone was successful with their attempts. This cat seemed to make a point of not stepping into the square

Broken: Was something wrong with the box or the cat? Either way, this cat wasn't going to play along with their human's schemes

John Bradshaw, author of the book Cat Sense, told Buzzfeed that it might just be because the newly taped 'circle' smells differently to what they're used to.

'To get yourself inside a cat's head you have to remember that cats use their ears and noses much more than we do, so what to us is just a circle may not be a circle as far as the cat's concerned,' he said.

'The cat may be interpreting it as "Here's a place on the floor that doesn't smell like it did five minutes ago; I'll go and sit down and see what happens."'

But Vicky Halls, author of a series of cat behavior books including Cat Confidential, told DailyMail.com in 2014 that it could be a survival mechanism.

'A cat is a solitary survivalist,' she says. 'It doesn't survive in a pack, so when it experiences something new it has to check out whether it is safe or dangerous itself, depending on the confidence of the cat.

'From a survival point of view, a cat would be foolish to ignore something new or be dismissive of it.'

So it turns out that curiosity doesn't kill the cat - very much the opposite. But is it the reason for 'cat squares'? Only the cats themselves truly know.

Paws: This user found themselves foiled by this big grey kitty's inability to actually fit inside their rectangle

Puppy power: An attempt to use the trick on this dog had the opposite effect - he wouldn't even step inside the square