How Your Feline Uses His Senses
Your cat’s senses are very keen and are designed to help your feline friend operate smoothly in his environment. From high-powered ears to a sensitive nose, your cat can sense things in ways that humans can only dream about. Here’s how your cat uses his senses to his advantage:
Sight
Anyone who has seen their pet cat’s round eyes gleaming in the darkness has probably assumed that cats can see very well in low-light situations. This is absolutely correct. Cats can use their eyes to see very well at night, much better than humans can in dark situations. This is because cats have special layers in their eyes that reflect light, allowing them to use it more efficiently than other animals. A cat’s eyesight during the day and in high-light situations, however, is actually worse than a human.
Aside from this, a cat’s eyesight has many other features differentiating it from humans. Since cats are predators, they have very good depth perception, as well as a vision that focuses mainly on movement. Another feature that helps them hunt is that their eyes do not need to be lubricated by blinking. This helps them keep a steady focus on their prey.
Your cat’s sight is extraordinary, especially peripheral vision. A cat’s pupils can dilate wider to capture a panoramic view of the landscape. They are also specialists in detecting movement, a trait honed over thousands of years of hunting. It’s interesting to note, however, that cat’s do have a blind spot right under their chins. Despite their amazing sight, they can literally overlook something within reach.
Smell
While a cat’s eyesight has its pros and cons, its sense of smell is indisputably better than that of a human. In fact, their sense of smell is almost fifteen times stronger than ours, meaning your pet cat can use their nose to navigate their environment. It’s not just their nose that knows, though, as cats are equipped with a second scent sensor, a pair of organs called the Jacobson’s organs, located in the roof of their mouth. If you see your cat grimacing or sneering by pulling back his upper lip, and opening his mouth, it means he is using this secondary sense of smell.
Our cat’s sense of smell is critical to learning about the environment. About 200 million odor-sensitive, cells are found in a typical cat’s nose. Humans only have five million. Cats not only use their noses in conjunction with eating, they also rely on their sense of smell to communicate with each other.
Hearing
As with their sense of smell, cats have a very advanced sense of hearing, as felines make good use of their large, perky ears. While cats hear sounds about as low as humans, they can hear much higher pitches than we can, and their range goes even above that of dogs. Additionally, they can discriminate between different tones and pitches much better than we can. As for using this sense, cats can use their hearing to pinpoint prey very well. Both of their ears can swivel and move independently of each other, which is very useful for finding the sources of certain sounds. Amazingly, cats are able to distinguish between sounds that occur as close as 3 inches apart.
So many sounds are beyond the capacity of your ears, but your cat picks up on them with no problem. Cats even hear better than dogs. A range of 48 HZ to 85 kHz gives felines one of the broadest hearing ranges among mammals.
Taste
Taste is the weakest of the cat senses, as cats have significantly fewer taste buds than either dogs or humans. Cats, since they are carnivores, have senses of taste that strongly identify and prefer fats and proteins. On the other hand, they do not have much of a taste for sweets, nor do they seek out salty foods, as they get all the salt they need from their meat-heavy diet.
There’s a reason cats won’t necessarily eat just any cat food you put in front of them. They only have about 470 taste buds. That sounds like a lot, but compare it to your own mouth that includes more than 9,000. Not only do cats have fewer taste buds, but they’re also not as sensitive. That’s why they rely more on their sense of smell when it comes to choosing food.
Touch
Whiskers and paws do the investigative work in a cat’s environment. Cats have whiskers on the backs of their front legs in addition to their face. They use whiskers to feel out objects around them and determine things like whether they can squeeze through a narrow opening. Certain whiskers help cats stalk prey in dim light.
While cats sense touch much as we do with their paws and the rest of their body, the most remarkable aspect of this cat sense is their whiskers. These special hairs provide your cat with detailed sensory information; helping him to create a deep understanding of his world.
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