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Modern folklore is much like the past when it comes to our feline friends. They are associated with all types of enhanced sensory abilities, but one has to wonder if these claims are really true. Well, let's take a closer look. Cats do have enhanced senses without any doubt. To understand why and how it works, it helps to understand why they have them. They are predators. A cat's senses are enhanced to help it hunt prey in practically any circumstance. To grasp the evolution of the senses of your kitten, just consider the vision. Cats are night predators. As a result, their vision is tailored to be much better than ours during the night, but we have superior sight during the day. So, how exactly is a cat's vision enhanced during the night? It has a tapetum lucidum that we do not. What is it? A reflective device in the eyes that concentrates what the cat is seeing. This is the red eye you see in pictures. You might be surprised when it comes to hearing of a kitten. One would think it would be significantly better than us lowly humans. It is for higher pitches, but mid to lower pitches finds the cat hearing about as well as us. As we all know, a cat has a sense of smell that is simply amazing. Crack open a can of food for your kitten and they will be at your feet immediately. Compared to a human, their sense of smell is 14 time sharper and they have double the smell sensory cells. What about the sense of touch? Well, cats have whiskers for a reason. Everyone has seen those on the face, but your cat actually also has them under the chin, on the back of each ankle and on the inner wrist area. The odd thing about a cat's whiskers is the input they provide. A cat's brain will actually process the sense the same way as it will vision. As a result, scientists belive that cats more or less "see" with their whiskers. Turning to taste, we find something very odd about cats. They have problems tasting sugars for genetic reasons. Scientists believe this is why most cat breeds ignore potential plant food and prefer meat that they can taste. As you can see, your cat not only thinks it is smarter than you, but it definitely has enhanced senses. Whether that leads to greater intelligence is hard to say, but it certainly food for thought. Just not sugary food.
Article Source: http://www.rightarticle.com
Aazdak Alisimo writes about all types of pets for PetStoreYeti.com, where you can find pet stores in your area.
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