| Today cats
are no longer suspected of supernatural powers. Cats can
hear sounds that we can't hear, see things that we can't see and smell
and feel the world around us in ways that we can never grasp. |
| Smell
: cat sense fourteen times as strong than
human |
| Cats rely heavily on
their sense of smell. A cat will always sniff its
food before eating and scent marks are an essential part of feline
communication.Cats also have a unique mechanism at the top of their
mouth, which enables them to make a special analysis of air molecules.
A domestic cat sense of smell is about fourteen times as strong as a
human's but not quite as good as the dog's. |
| Sight
: special cat senses at night |
| Average sight of cat
senses have a visual field of view estimated at 200°, versus
180° in humans, with a binocular field (overlap in the images
from
each eye) narrower than that of humans. The special cat senses of sight
is cat have excellent night
vision and can see much better than us even in a badly lit environment,
though they cannot see in total darkness. Sight is key element in a
cat's hunting ability. While a cat's general vision is poor (much
duller than a person's) because of the particular structure of their
retinas, cats have an exceptional ability to see movement. |
| Sound
: three
times of cat senses better than human |
| Cats can hear sounds
that are three times as high than the ones we can.
Cats in fact use their hearing for preying , for example for deciding
whether a mouse hole is inhabited or deserted. Humans can hear
frequencies from about 20 hertz to 20 kilohertz, dogs from about 20
hertz to 40 kilohertz, and cats from about 30 hertz to 60 kilohertz.
The shape of the ear is designed to funnel sound down to the
middle
ear, where the tympanic membrane and three small bones called auditory
ossicles transmit vibrations into the inner ear. |
| Taste
: cat
senses for determine which foods are good |
| Cats use their sense of
taste to determine which foods are good for
them. Cats are also not very sensitive to the taste of salt. Some
experts say that this is because they get all the salt they need from
their meat-based diet. Compared to humans, the cat's sense of taste is
weak. We have 9,000 taste buds, while they have only 473.
The preferred
temperature for feline food is 86 degrees Fahrenheit--the same
temperature as the cat's tongue. |
| Touch
: cat
senses uses for hunting |
| Like us, cats have touch
receptors all over their body. These nerve
cells transfer sensations of pressure, temperature and pain from any
point to the brain. The most sensitive places on the cat's body, where
the nerve cells are concentrated, are the face and the front paws. This
is because these are the most important body parts the cat uses while
hunting. The cat's whiskers are the most sensitive of all.
The special
hairs, called vibrissae, are set deep within the skin and provide the
cat with sensory information about the slightest air movement around it
- a valuable tool for a nocturnal hunter. |
|
|
Domestic
Cat
