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All physical cat We can only really appreciate another species if we understand their biology, so in order to get a feeling for what it is like to be a cat, here is an opportunity to find out what lies beneath the glossy fur. ll living organisms are categorized into class, order, family, genus and species. The domestic cat is classified as a carnivorous mammal of the Felidae family. This includes the sub-groups Felinae, Pantherinae and Acinonychinae. The Acinonychinae has a sole member, the cheetah, but the Pantherinae family includes the lion, tiger, panther and leopard. Felinae encompasses all the small cats, for example the lynx, serval, ocelot, caracal, jaguarundi, jungle cat and Pallas cat. Our own pet cat is a domesticated subspecies of Felis silvestris known as F. silvestris catus. Certain aspects of the cat’s anatomy and physiology have modified and adapted through the process of evolution to best suit its environment and role in nature. Whether a cat lives wild or in pampered luxury with a loving owner it’s still built the same, and its ability and drive to behave in a particular way doesn’t change. If you really want to get a true insight into your cat’s behaviour (or at least what he should be doing instead of lying on his back in front of the fire), start with the basics by exploring how the domestic cat is constructed.
Getting to know your cat both inside and out will give you a small taste of what it must be like to be feline. Just a little information about what cats see, feel, hear and smell can be a revelation. They smell things we can’t, like the odour of another cat that has passed through the garden. They hear ultrasonic sounds beyond the range of our own hearing. They feel vibration through their feet and whiskers so faint that we remain oblivious to it. Their heightened sensory abilities in comparison to our own lead many people to believe the myth that cats have a supernatural sixth sense. In reality, they are just so much more tuned into their surroundings than we are.From the tip of the cat’s nose to the end of its tail it possesses some unique features that together form one of the most successful and adaptable creatures of our time , Although cats’ anatomy and physiology have modified and adapted to suit their environment, they remain lean hunting machines, like their wildcat cousins.
YOUR CAT’S PRIMARY SENSES :
It’s fitting that the first part of your cat we should explore is his nose, as he lives in a world dominated by odour, while a look at his eyes reveals his nocturnal lifestyle. Your cat will use his nose in the same way you use your eyes and ears to read a newspaper or watch television to gain information about his environment, other animals, food and everything of importance in his territory. Cats have 200 million cells in their noses that are sensitive to odour, giving them a sense of smell estimated at 14 times stronger than that of a human. Your cat’s nose is also sensitive to touch and temperature, and he uses it to investigate textures and shapes as well. The nose pad of each cat is ridged in a unique pattern, just like a human fingerprint.
Odours are so important to a cat’s survival that they have a second organ of scent called the vomeronasal or Jacobson’s organ, enabling them to ‘taste’ extremely significant smells. This organ consists of two small apertures behind the front teeth in the roof of the mouth that connect to the nasal cavity. The cat opens its mouth and draws the air into the apertures, which looks like a grimace and is referred to as the Flehmen response. Tom cats are frequently seen wearing this facial expression when they are searching for females in season by investigating any deposits of urine they may find, as the information gleaned will help them find a mate. Your cat’s nose is particularly sensitive to odours containing nitrogen compounds, enabling him to sniff out and reject rancid or spoiled foods, which release chemicals rich in nitrogen , Domestic as well as many wild cats respond to the smell of particular herbs and plants, driving them to rub their faces on them and to roll around and drool – similar to a male cat in response to a female in oestrous (on heat).
The catnip plant (Nepeta cataria) contains the chemical trans-nepetalactone, closely related to a substance secreted by a queen (female cat) in her urine. Valerian can also produce the same effect , A cat’s sense of smell is estimated to be 14 times stronger than that of a human. The nose pad, which is ridged with a unique finger-print-like pattern, is used to investigate textures and shapes as well.
Like most predators, your cat’s eyes are located on the front of his head to aid the perception of depth when hunting. His field of vision is about 200 degrees, with a central section of binocular vision to help him judge distances. Feral cats tend to be long-sighted, compared to indoor cats, with vision tailored for prey that can be captured within running distance. The cat is predominantly a nocturnal hunter, aided by a reflective membrane at the back of the eye called the tapetum lucidum that makes maximum use of low light conditions. Your cat’s pupils are capable of dilating to a diameter nearly twice as large as that of a human, which helps him further to see in semi-darkness. You will notice that his pupils constrictto a slit in bright light as a protective measure to avoid discomfort, common in mammals adapted to life in semi-darkness .
Pupil size not only changes according to the ambient light conditions but can also be a good indicator of a cat’s mood: if your cat’s feeling angry, he will have narrow pupils, while when he’s excited or frightened by something, his eyes will be wide with fully dilated pupils , Contrary to common belief, cats are not completely colour-blind. They can actually see blues, greens and yellows, although they can’t distinguish red tones. But colour simply has no relevance to them in their lives as nocturnal hunters, when everything appears in shades of grey in any case. Cats have a reflective membrane at the back of their eyes which enables them to make maximum use of low light conditions. In addition, their pupils can dilate nearly twice as much as humans’ can.
Your cat uses his whiskers as an ingenious navigational tool, enabling him to know when he is near to an obstacle without needing to see it , Your cat has 24 whiskers, called vibrissae, in rows on each side of his nose, with additional ones on each cheek, over the eyes, on the chin and on the back of each foreleg. They are twice as thick as ordinary cat hair, with roots embedded three times deeper into the surface of the skin. The roots of the whiskers extend deep into the follicles and have a large number of nerve endings at their base, making them extremely sensitive to wind speed, air
pressure and touch. Any slight sensation on the tip of the cat’s whisker will cause the eye to close as a reflex action to avoid injury from objects in the immediate vicinity while its attention is focused elsewhere , A cat’s whiskers are an important aid when it’s hunting and manipulating its prey. As the cat is long-sighted it cannot see objects close up, so the whiskers move forward to accurately detect the position of prey. If a cat’s whiskers have been cut or damaged, it will find it difficult to kill effectively. On the other hand, if a cat loses its sight, its whiskers will provide it with a form of ‘vision’ and enable it to adjust well to moving around in familiar surroundings , Whiskers are also an indicator of a cat’s mood. Your cat’s whiskers will point slightly forwards and down when he’s relaxed, lie flat on his face when he’s being defensive and point forwards when he’s being aggressive.
Teeth are the most important tool of the domestic cat as a predator, in order to catch and kill prey. They are also essential for defence against other cats. The adult cat has a total of 30 teeth: 12 incisors (the small teeth at the front of the jaw used mainly to help grooming) , four canines (the long fang teeth used to catch and hold prey and deliver the fatal bite) and ten premolars and four molars (used for shearing meat to portions small enough to swallow).The first temporary set of 26 teeth appear in a kitten around two weeks of age, referred to as the milk or deciduous teeth. These are replaced , by adult teeth around the age of six months. Cats’ teeth are highly specialized for biting and tearing flesh, fixed in a powerful jaw comprising the upper jaw, or maxilla, and the lower jaw, the mandible. Your cat has fewer molar teeth than most other mammals, with no grinding surfaces, as he doesn’t chew his food but swallows it in chunks. He is able to feel the tiny depression at the back of the neck on his prey with his teeth so that he knows where to bit , Cats have bacteria in their mouths called Pasteurella multocida that are the cause of most cat bite abscesses when they fight. This bacterium won’t cause a problem in your cat’s mouth, but if injected into the bloodstream of another cat when a canine tooth punctures the skin it will potentially result in infection. All cat bite wounds to people should be treated straight away for the same reason, so a visit to your doctor is recommended.
In the wild, a cat’s teeth are cleaned as they scrape them over the bones of their prey. Your pet cat, fed on a commercial cat food, does not have this opportunity and can experience a build-up of plaque and tartar on his teeth, leading to gum and dental disease. If your cat has difficulty in eating, bad breath and excessive salivation, it could indicate discomfort associated with dental disease , Adult cats have 30 teeth, which are specialized for biting and tearing flesh. There are no grinding surfaces as cats don’t chew their food but swallow it in chunks.
Tongue and taste :
Anyone who has ever been licked by a cat will know that its tongue is surprisingly rough! Its abrasive surface is covered with over a thousand tiny tooth-like spines called papillae made from keratin, the same material that makes human fingernails. These are shaped like hooks, enabling the cat to remove fur and feathers and clean off any flesh from the bones of its prey. The spines on your cat’s tongue also make it an incredibly efficient tool to smooth and untangle his fur when he grooms. Your cat will also use his tongue to cover his fur with saliva in order to cool him down as it evaporates. There’s no need to towel dry your cat either, as he will use his tongue to lick away any wetness , Your cat also uses his tongue for drinking in a novel way by curling it like a spoon and scooping the liquid up and backwards into his mouth, only swallowing every third or fourth lap.
The cat’s sense of taste has evolved to focus on their specialist carnivorous diet. Although compared to humans it is weak, a cat still responds predominantly to sour, bitter and salt, with little if any response to sweet. Your cat makes up for this deficiency with a superior sense of smell when it comes to food. That’s why cats with flu symptoms and a blocked nose go off their food and need strong-smelling treats to stimulate their appetite , The area of the brain that controls balance, posture and movement is the cerebellum. It is large in cats so it is unsurprising that cats are so fleet-of-foot and graceful.
INSIDE YOUR CAT’S BRAIN :
Studying the cat’s brain and the proportionate sizes of its different areas gives us humans a valuable insight into what the species is all about , The physical structure of your cat’s brain is very similar to your own,consisting of three main sections: the forebrain, the midbrain and the hindbrain. The cerebellum in the hindbrain is large in the cat and therefore of some significance. As this area controls the coordination of balance, posture and movement, it’s no surprise that your cat is born to climb, twist, move gracefully and land on his feet when he falls , The cerebral cortex in the forebrain, known as the ‘seat’ of intelligence, contains areas that receive information from sensory receptors in the body and control movement. The specialized nature of the cat is apparent here too, as the area associated with hearing is large; acute hearing is essential when hunting small prey. The cerebral cortex is described as the ‘new’ part of the brain where behaviour is learned and developed in a sophisticated way. There are, however, older parts of the brain in all three sections that have a construction common to all mammals. These areas control the instinctive and innate
behaviour like eating and drinking and the intense emotions that are ‘hardwired’ such as aggression, rage and fear , While some of your cat’s behaviour is instinctive, he will also learn a wide range of responses during his lifetime. Cats learn by observing or imitating others and by trial and error. Humans are constantly trying to establish quite how intelligent cats are, but this is impossible if they are assessed according to a human perspective. It’s wiser to judge an animal’s intelligence by its ability to use and understand its environment, and adapt to new ones. By this measure, cats are very intelligent indeed!
HOW YOUR CAT FEELS:
Scientists now accept that animals have emotions, and that includes your cat. Previously thought to feel only the primitive emotions of fear and aggression, advances in neuroscience show that they can experience more complex feelings. Cats are capable of feeling positive and negative emotions, each on a scale that can vary from pleasure to ecstasy and apprehension to terror , The limbic system is the part of the brain buried under the cerebral cortex that controls emotions and motivations, particularly those essential for your cat’s survival, such as fear, anger and the pleasurable feelings associated with food and sexual behaviour. The hypothalamus, part of this limbic system, is responsible for controlling emotions, food and water intake, the sleep-wake cycle and many other functions that maintain his body’s equilibrium. One of its functions is to control hormones through the endocrine system , In fact, it’s impossible to talk about the brain, intelligence and emotions without bringing the hormones into the frame, as they play an important role when your cat reacts emotionally. The adrenal gland found near the kidneys is particularly significant in his body’s response to stress. It produces adrenalin, which fuels the ‘fight or flight’ response to danger, and a steroid hormone called cortisol that adjusts your cat’s metabolism at times of mental and physical stress. Chronic unavoidable stress can lead to constantly high levels of cortisol in his bloodstream, causing changes to the immune response and an increased susceptibility to disease.
One of the emotions that you want your cat to experience is pleasure. You will recognize this state of mind when your cat curls up next to you, purring and treading with his front paws. Play is also a highly enjoyable experience; the physical exertion of play releases a hormone in the brain called dopamine that gives your cat a sense of wellbeing. This is a little like the experience you might have after a workout at the gym! However, it’s not always that easy to determine a cat’s emotional state. As they are not fundamentally social creatures, they have no intrinsic need to signal emotion with their body language and facial expression, particularly if that emotion could put them at a disadvantage and make them vulnerable to attack.
HEARING AND BALANCE :
Your cat’s sense of balance, movement and hearing are finely tuned to catch small prey, the latter acute enough to judge within 7.5 cm (3 in) the location of a sound 90 cm (3 ft) away. The hearing range of the cat extends from 48 hertz to 85 kilohertz, compared to ours of a mere 20 hertz to 20 kilohertz, making it the broadest of any mammal. The cat’s rodent prey emits a high-pitched squeak, hence the need to increase the range of its hearing, but this has occurred during the course of its evolution without sacrificing the ability to hear low-frequency sounds. Your cat will therefore also be responsive to the high pitch of the female voice, and can hear sounds up to 1.6 octaves higher than our ears can. Even dogs can’t compete at this range , In your cat’s inner ear, deep within the skull, is a group of semicircular canals that form the vestibular system. These canals are filled with fluid and sensory hairs that enable him to balance and move with great precision. This aids one of your cat’s most famous attributes, the ability to right himself when falling to safely land on all four feet.
Your cat’s outer ears, called the pinnae, are comparatively large and controlled by 32 separate muscles, compared to our paltry six, allowing them to rotate independently through 180 degrees to turn towards the direction of the slightest sound , The angle of your cat’s ears is an important indicator of mood, showing fear when they are flattened against his head, anger when they are rotated backwards and excitement when they are pricked upright and slightly forwards , The Scottish and American Fold breeds of cat possess a genetic mutation that makes their ear cartilage contain a fold, causing the ears to bend forwards and down towards the front of the head. Cats with white fur and pale skin on their ears are particularly prone to sunburn, so take precautionary measures if this is the case with your cat, as frequent sunburn can lead to skin cancer. Or has he even got two sets of ears? This can be the result of a rare genetic mutation, first studied in 1957.
Getting to know your cat both inside and out will give you a small taste of what it must be like to be feline. Just a little information about what cats see, feel, hear and smell can be a revelation. They smell things we can’t, like the odour of another cat that has passed through the garden. They hear ultrasonic sounds beyond the range of our own hearing. They feel vibration through their feet and whiskers so faint that we remain oblivious to it. Their heightened sensory abilities in comparison to our own lead many people to believe the myth that cats have a supernatural sixth sense. In reality, they are just so much more tuned into their surroundings than we are.From the tip of the cat’s nose to the end of its tail it possesses some unique features that together form one of the most successful and adaptable creatures of our time , Although cats’ anatomy and physiology have modified and adapted to suit their environment, they remain lean hunting machines, like their wildcat cousins.
YOUR CAT’S PRIMARY SENSES :
It’s fitting that the first part of your cat we should explore is his nose, as he lives in a world dominated by odour, while a look at his eyes reveals his nocturnal lifestyle. Your cat will use his nose in the same way you use your eyes and ears to read a newspaper or watch television to gain information about his environment, other animals, food and everything of importance in his territory. Cats have 200 million cells in their noses that are sensitive to odour, giving them a sense of smell estimated at 14 times stronger than that of a human. Your cat’s nose is also sensitive to touch and temperature, and he uses it to investigate textures and shapes as well. The nose pad of each cat is ridged in a unique pattern, just like a human fingerprint.
Odours are so important to a cat’s survival that they have a second organ of scent called the vomeronasal or Jacobson’s organ, enabling them to ‘taste’ extremely significant smells. This organ consists of two small apertures behind the front teeth in the roof of the mouth that connect to the nasal cavity. The cat opens its mouth and draws the air into the apertures, which looks like a grimace and is referred to as the Flehmen response. Tom cats are frequently seen wearing this facial expression when they are searching for females in season by investigating any deposits of urine they may find, as the information gleaned will help them find a mate. Your cat’s nose is particularly sensitive to odours containing nitrogen compounds, enabling him to sniff out and reject rancid or spoiled foods, which release chemicals rich in nitrogen , Domestic as well as many wild cats respond to the smell of particular herbs and plants, driving them to rub their faces on them and to roll around and drool – similar to a male cat in response to a female in oestrous (on heat).
The catnip plant (Nepeta cataria) contains the chemical trans-nepetalactone, closely related to a substance secreted by a queen (female cat) in her urine. Valerian can also produce the same effect , A cat’s sense of smell is estimated to be 14 times stronger than that of a human. The nose pad, which is ridged with a unique finger-print-like pattern, is used to investigate textures and shapes as well.
Like most predators, your cat’s eyes are located on the front of his head to aid the perception of depth when hunting. His field of vision is about 200 degrees, with a central section of binocular vision to help him judge distances. Feral cats tend to be long-sighted, compared to indoor cats, with vision tailored for prey that can be captured within running distance. The cat is predominantly a nocturnal hunter, aided by a reflective membrane at the back of the eye called the tapetum lucidum that makes maximum use of low light conditions. Your cat’s pupils are capable of dilating to a diameter nearly twice as large as that of a human, which helps him further to see in semi-darkness. You will notice that his pupils constrictto a slit in bright light as a protective measure to avoid discomfort, common in mammals adapted to life in semi-darkness .
Pupil size not only changes according to the ambient light conditions but can also be a good indicator of a cat’s mood: if your cat’s feeling angry, he will have narrow pupils, while when he’s excited or frightened by something, his eyes will be wide with fully dilated pupils , Contrary to common belief, cats are not completely colour-blind. They can actually see blues, greens and yellows, although they can’t distinguish red tones. But colour simply has no relevance to them in their lives as nocturnal hunters, when everything appears in shades of grey in any case. Cats have a reflective membrane at the back of their eyes which enables them to make maximum use of low light conditions. In addition, their pupils can dilate nearly twice as much as humans’ can.
Your cat uses his whiskers as an ingenious navigational tool, enabling him to know when he is near to an obstacle without needing to see it , Your cat has 24 whiskers, called vibrissae, in rows on each side of his nose, with additional ones on each cheek, over the eyes, on the chin and on the back of each foreleg. They are twice as thick as ordinary cat hair, with roots embedded three times deeper into the surface of the skin. The roots of the whiskers extend deep into the follicles and have a large number of nerve endings at their base, making them extremely sensitive to wind speed, air
pressure and touch. Any slight sensation on the tip of the cat’s whisker will cause the eye to close as a reflex action to avoid injury from objects in the immediate vicinity while its attention is focused elsewhere , A cat’s whiskers are an important aid when it’s hunting and manipulating its prey. As the cat is long-sighted it cannot see objects close up, so the whiskers move forward to accurately detect the position of prey. If a cat’s whiskers have been cut or damaged, it will find it difficult to kill effectively. On the other hand, if a cat loses its sight, its whiskers will provide it with a form of ‘vision’ and enable it to adjust well to moving around in familiar surroundings , Whiskers are also an indicator of a cat’s mood. Your cat’s whiskers will point slightly forwards and down when he’s relaxed, lie flat on his face when he’s being defensive and point forwards when he’s being aggressive.
Teeth are the most important tool of the domestic cat as a predator, in order to catch and kill prey. They are also essential for defence against other cats. The adult cat has a total of 30 teeth: 12 incisors (the small teeth at the front of the jaw used mainly to help grooming) , four canines (the long fang teeth used to catch and hold prey and deliver the fatal bite) and ten premolars and four molars (used for shearing meat to portions small enough to swallow).The first temporary set of 26 teeth appear in a kitten around two weeks of age, referred to as the milk or deciduous teeth. These are replaced , by adult teeth around the age of six months. Cats’ teeth are highly specialized for biting and tearing flesh, fixed in a powerful jaw comprising the upper jaw, or maxilla, and the lower jaw, the mandible. Your cat has fewer molar teeth than most other mammals, with no grinding surfaces, as he doesn’t chew his food but swallows it in chunks. He is able to feel the tiny depression at the back of the neck on his prey with his teeth so that he knows where to bit , Cats have bacteria in their mouths called Pasteurella multocida that are the cause of most cat bite abscesses when they fight. This bacterium won’t cause a problem in your cat’s mouth, but if injected into the bloodstream of another cat when a canine tooth punctures the skin it will potentially result in infection. All cat bite wounds to people should be treated straight away for the same reason, so a visit to your doctor is recommended.
In the wild, a cat’s teeth are cleaned as they scrape them over the bones of their prey. Your pet cat, fed on a commercial cat food, does not have this opportunity and can experience a build-up of plaque and tartar on his teeth, leading to gum and dental disease. If your cat has difficulty in eating, bad breath and excessive salivation, it could indicate discomfort associated with dental disease , Adult cats have 30 teeth, which are specialized for biting and tearing flesh. There are no grinding surfaces as cats don’t chew their food but swallow it in chunks.
Tongue and taste :
Anyone who has ever been licked by a cat will know that its tongue is surprisingly rough! Its abrasive surface is covered with over a thousand tiny tooth-like spines called papillae made from keratin, the same material that makes human fingernails. These are shaped like hooks, enabling the cat to remove fur and feathers and clean off any flesh from the bones of its prey. The spines on your cat’s tongue also make it an incredibly efficient tool to smooth and untangle his fur when he grooms. Your cat will also use his tongue to cover his fur with saliva in order to cool him down as it evaporates. There’s no need to towel dry your cat either, as he will use his tongue to lick away any wetness , Your cat also uses his tongue for drinking in a novel way by curling it like a spoon and scooping the liquid up and backwards into his mouth, only swallowing every third or fourth lap.
The cat’s sense of taste has evolved to focus on their specialist carnivorous diet. Although compared to humans it is weak, a cat still responds predominantly to sour, bitter and salt, with little if any response to sweet. Your cat makes up for this deficiency with a superior sense of smell when it comes to food. That’s why cats with flu symptoms and a blocked nose go off their food and need strong-smelling treats to stimulate their appetite , The area of the brain that controls balance, posture and movement is the cerebellum. It is large in cats so it is unsurprising that cats are so fleet-of-foot and graceful.
INSIDE YOUR CAT’S BRAIN :
Studying the cat’s brain and the proportionate sizes of its different areas gives us humans a valuable insight into what the species is all about , The physical structure of your cat’s brain is very similar to your own,consisting of three main sections: the forebrain, the midbrain and the hindbrain. The cerebellum in the hindbrain is large in the cat and therefore of some significance. As this area controls the coordination of balance, posture and movement, it’s no surprise that your cat is born to climb, twist, move gracefully and land on his feet when he falls , The cerebral cortex in the forebrain, known as the ‘seat’ of intelligence, contains areas that receive information from sensory receptors in the body and control movement. The specialized nature of the cat is apparent here too, as the area associated with hearing is large; acute hearing is essential when hunting small prey. The cerebral cortex is described as the ‘new’ part of the brain where behaviour is learned and developed in a sophisticated way. There are, however, older parts of the brain in all three sections that have a construction common to all mammals. These areas control the instinctive and innate
behaviour like eating and drinking and the intense emotions that are ‘hardwired’ such as aggression, rage and fear , While some of your cat’s behaviour is instinctive, he will also learn a wide range of responses during his lifetime. Cats learn by observing or imitating others and by trial and error. Humans are constantly trying to establish quite how intelligent cats are, but this is impossible if they are assessed according to a human perspective. It’s wiser to judge an animal’s intelligence by its ability to use and understand its environment, and adapt to new ones. By this measure, cats are very intelligent indeed!
HOW YOUR CAT FEELS:
Scientists now accept that animals have emotions, and that includes your cat. Previously thought to feel only the primitive emotions of fear and aggression, advances in neuroscience show that they can experience more complex feelings. Cats are capable of feeling positive and negative emotions, each on a scale that can vary from pleasure to ecstasy and apprehension to terror , The limbic system is the part of the brain buried under the cerebral cortex that controls emotions and motivations, particularly those essential for your cat’s survival, such as fear, anger and the pleasurable feelings associated with food and sexual behaviour. The hypothalamus, part of this limbic system, is responsible for controlling emotions, food and water intake, the sleep-wake cycle and many other functions that maintain his body’s equilibrium. One of its functions is to control hormones through the endocrine system , In fact, it’s impossible to talk about the brain, intelligence and emotions without bringing the hormones into the frame, as they play an important role when your cat reacts emotionally. The adrenal gland found near the kidneys is particularly significant in his body’s response to stress. It produces adrenalin, which fuels the ‘fight or flight’ response to danger, and a steroid hormone called cortisol that adjusts your cat’s metabolism at times of mental and physical stress. Chronic unavoidable stress can lead to constantly high levels of cortisol in his bloodstream, causing changes to the immune response and an increased susceptibility to disease.
One of the emotions that you want your cat to experience is pleasure. You will recognize this state of mind when your cat curls up next to you, purring and treading with his front paws. Play is also a highly enjoyable experience; the physical exertion of play releases a hormone in the brain called dopamine that gives your cat a sense of wellbeing. This is a little like the experience you might have after a workout at the gym! However, it’s not always that easy to determine a cat’s emotional state. As they are not fundamentally social creatures, they have no intrinsic need to signal emotion with their body language and facial expression, particularly if that emotion could put them at a disadvantage and make them vulnerable to attack.
HEARING AND BALANCE :
Your cat’s sense of balance, movement and hearing are finely tuned to catch small prey, the latter acute enough to judge within 7.5 cm (3 in) the location of a sound 90 cm (3 ft) away. The hearing range of the cat extends from 48 hertz to 85 kilohertz, compared to ours of a mere 20 hertz to 20 kilohertz, making it the broadest of any mammal. The cat’s rodent prey emits a high-pitched squeak, hence the need to increase the range of its hearing, but this has occurred during the course of its evolution without sacrificing the ability to hear low-frequency sounds. Your cat will therefore also be responsive to the high pitch of the female voice, and can hear sounds up to 1.6 octaves higher than our ears can. Even dogs can’t compete at this range , In your cat’s inner ear, deep within the skull, is a group of semicircular canals that form the vestibular system. These canals are filled with fluid and sensory hairs that enable him to balance and move with great precision. This aids one of your cat’s most famous attributes, the ability to right himself when falling to safely land on all four feet.
Your cat’s outer ears, called the pinnae, are comparatively large and controlled by 32 separate muscles, compared to our paltry six, allowing them to rotate independently through 180 degrees to turn towards the direction of the slightest sound , The angle of your cat’s ears is an important indicator of mood, showing fear when they are flattened against his head, anger when they are rotated backwards and excitement when they are pricked upright and slightly forwards , The Scottish and American Fold breeds of cat possess a genetic mutation that makes their ear cartilage contain a fold, causing the ears to bend forwards and down towards the front of the head. Cats with white fur and pale skin on their ears are particularly prone to sunburn, so take precautionary measures if this is the case with your cat, as frequent sunburn can lead to skin cancer. Or has he even got two sets of ears? This can be the result of a rare genetic mutation, first studied in 1957.
