Sourcing facts and figures from five major online media outlets—Reddit, Tumblr, Instagram, YouTube, and BuzzFeed—the team found that while cats having seemingly conquered the Interwebs, there is very little data to support their popularity over any other animal.

In fact, dogs (which they used for comparison) are just as popular, if not more so—a quick search for Man’s Best Friend renders 3 million more YouTube videos than the felines.

Cats just seem to go viral more quickly, for many reasons.

The rise of user-generated content has allowed more and more pet owners to quickly and easily share photos and videos of their cats, the number one pet in the United States.