Cat senses is an adaptation that allows cats to become highly efficient predators. Cats have acute vision, hearing, and olfactory, and their sense of touch is enhanced by the long mustaches protruding from their heads and bodies. These senses allow cats to hunt effectively in dim light and at night.
Video Cat senses
Sight
Cats, like dogs and many other animals, have tapetum lucidum , which is a reflective layer behind the retina that sends light passing through the retina back into the eye. While this enhances the ability to see in the dark, it seems to reduce the visual acuity cleaner, thus reducing when light is plentiful. In a very bright light, the pupils closely resemble a gap narrowly above the eye, reducing the amount of light on the sensitive retina, and increasing the depth of the field. Large cats have pupils that contract with round dots. Tapetum and other mechanisms give the cat a minimum light detection threshold up to seven times lower than humans. The color variations of cat eyes in flash photos mostly due to the reflection of the flash by tapetum.
Cats have a visual field of view of 200 Â ° compared with 180 Â ° in humans, but the field of binoculars (overlapping in the image of each eye) is narrower than humans. Like most predators, their eyes are facing forward, giving the perception of depth at the expense of the field of view. Field of view is highly dependent on eye placement, but may also be related to eye construction. Instead of the fovea, which gives a sharp central human eye, the cat has a central tape known as the visual streak. Cats can see several colors, and can distinguish between red, blue and yellow lights, as well as between red and green lights. Cats are able to distinguish between blues and violets better than the color near the red end of the spectrum. A study of 2014 found that, along with several other mammals, cat lenses transmitted large amounts of ultraviolet light (UVA 315-400Ã, nm), indicating that they have sensitivity to this part of the spectrum.
The cat has a third eyelid, a nictitating membrane, which is a thin cover that closes from the side and appears when the cat's eyelids open. This membrane partially closes if the cat is sick, although in a sleepy state the membrane is often seen.
Cats often sleep during the day so they can "hunt" at night. Unlike humans, cats do not have to wink their eyes regularly to keep their eyes lubricated (with tears). Eyes that do not blink may be an advantage when hunting. Cats will, however, "squint" their eyes, usually as a form of communication that expresses affection and ease around cats or other humans.
Maps Cat senses
Hearing
Humans and cats have the same range of hearing on a low scale, but cats can hear high-pitched sounds, up to 64 kHz, which is 1.6 octaves above the human range, and even 1 octave above the range. a dog. When listening to something, the cat's ears will spin in that direction; the cat's ear flap (pinnae) can independently lead backward and forwards and sideways to determine the sound source. Cats can assess within three inches (76 mm) of the sound location created one yard (91 cm) - this can be useful for finding prey.
Although it has long been thought that cats are unresponsive to music, recent research shows that they actually respond to music that has been created with the specific frequency of the species. The results show that cats benefit from music therapy when the sound has been composed to target their sense of hearing. Other findings include age-related sensitivity (older and younger cats are more responsive than middle-aged cats).
It is a common misconception that all white cats with blue eyes are deaf. This is not true, because there are many blue-eyed cats with perfect hearing. However, a white cat with blue eyes has a slightly higher incidence of genetic deafness than a white cat with other eye colors. White cats that have blue eyes and one other colored eye are called "strange eyes" and may be deaf on the same side as blue eyes. This is the result of yellow iris pigmentation that rises to the surface of only one eye, since the blue eye is normal at birth before the adult pigmentation has a chance to express itself in the eye (s).
Smell
The sense of smell of domestic cats is about fourteen times stronger than humans. Cats have twice as many receptors in the olfactory epithelium (ie, sensitive cells to smell in their nose) as people do, meaning that cats have a more acute sense of smell than humans. Cats also have fragrance organs on the roofs of their mouths called vomeronasal organs (or Jacobson). When the cat frowns up its muzzle, lowers its chin, and lets its tongue hang slightly, it opens the way to the vomeronasal. This is called gaping , "pouting", "snake mouth", or "flehming". Gaping is equivalent to Flehmen responses in other animals, such as dogs, horses and big cats.
Touch
A cat has about twenty-four moving vibrissae ("whiskers"), in four sets on each upper lip on either side of its nose (some cats may have more). There are also some on each cheek, tufts over the eyes, fur on the chin, "wrist" inner cat, and on the back of the foot. The Sphynx (a barely haired descendant) may have a full, short, or no whisker at all.
The structure of the brain region (barrel cortex) that receives information from the vibrissae is similar to that found in the visual cortex that allows the cat to create three-dimensional maps of its surroundings. This does not mean that sensing with vibrissae is a type of vision. It is still a touch sensation and the environment information is built in stages (in small steps).
Sensation and vibration tool navigation. The two top rows of the whiskers can be moved separately from the two bottom rows for greater accuracy during the measurement. A cat is more than twice as thick as regular cat hair, and its roots are three times deeper in the cat tissue than any other hair. They have many nerve endings in their base, which gives cat a very detailed information about the nearest air movement and the objects with which they make physical contact. They allow cats to know that it's near an obstacle without needing to see it.
Mustache also helps in hunting. High-speed photography reveals that when a cat can not see its prey because it is too close to its mouth, its mustache moves to form a basket shape around its snout to correctly detect the location of the prey. A cat whose mustache is broken can bite the wrong part of its prey, indicating that they are giving the cat detailed information about the shape and activity of its prey.
Taste
The cat family was shown in 2005 for a TAS1R2 protein deficiency, one of the two required for the sensory cerebral receptor function; deletion of relevant genes ( Tas1r2 ) causes a shift in the frame of genetic readings, causing transcription to stop early and undetectable mRNA or protein produced. Other proteins, TAS1R3, are present and identical to other animals, and relevant tastes still exist but are inactive. Such genetic markers found throughout the family and not other animals should be the result of mutations in the early ancestors; as a mutilation mutation that can not be restored, and thus will be inherited by all the offspring, like a branching evolutionary tree. Some scientists now believe this is the root of the very special evolutionary niches of the cat family as hunters and carnivores. The taste sensation they modify will cause them to some extent to ignore the plant, most of its appeal comes from the high sugar content, which supports a high protein carnivorous diet, which will still stimulate the remaining taste receptors.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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