Given that we humans are known to be “fairly obsessed with cats”, it should come as no surprise that cats are the most popular companion animals in the U.S.! Indeed, we are a country of ailurophiles (or cat lovers)!
There are many things we know and adore about these independent and social, naturally mysterious masterpieces of nature, who domesticated themselves, but there is always more to learn (and endless memes to peruse, of course).
Did you know? Cats . . .
. . . are talkers!
Cats can make up to 100 sounds, and, though kittens meow to their moms, adult cats meow “almost exclusively to communicate with humans” (not other cats)! Cats can actually “develop an entire ‘language’ in order to communicate” with their guardians.
. . . and are great listeners!
Cats have “exceptional hearing” and can “detect frequencies as high as 64,000 Hertz, compared with humans, who can hear up to around 20,000 Hertz”. Their ears are “a marvel of engineering”, with the “‘triangular part of their ear . . . acting as part radar dish and part catchers’ mitt . . . grabbing sounds from the air and pulling them inward,’….” They can also rotate their ears “independently 180 degrees” by using their “32 ear muscles” (humans, by comparison, only have six)!
. . . walk like camels and giraffes!
Cats, camels, and giraffes are the only animals who “move both right feet first, followed by both left feet, moving half of their body forward at once.” (Cats are also digitrade, meaning they walk naturally on their tiptoes.)
. . . are tremendous survivors . . .
…though they don’t actually have nine lives! Cats’ reputation for having nine lives “stems in part from their ability to navigate difficult environments”.
. . . know their names!
Even though they do not often come when called, studies show that “cats know and recognize their names” (as well as their guardians’ voices)! And, interestingly, cats tend to “respond most readily to names that end in an ‘ee’ sound” because it’s naturally vocalized in a higher-pitch.
. . . have a dominant paw!
Just as humans “are right- or left-handed, cats are right- or left-pawed”: male cats are “more likely” left-pawed, and females are “more likely” right-pawed (while about 11 percent of cats are ambidextrous).
. . . are “remarkably intelligent”!
Cats “possess object permanence, working memory, and long-term memory” and “understand quantity and time, which explains why they remind their [guardians] at meals”! That said, “scientific studies of cat intelligence are less prolific than dog studies” because “cats are notoriously hard subjects to test. ‘Many cats drop out of studies by walking away from the test site,’…”
. . . “share 95.6 percent of their genetic makeup with tigers” . . .
though they are often described as “little lions”! Cats display many of the same behaviors as big cats, including “scent marking, prey stalking, and pouncing.”
. . . can outrun Usain Bolt!
The “average, healthy” cat can run “at the remarkable speed of about 30 mph”.
. . . spend 30-50 percent of their day grooming . . .
. . . though not for the sake of vanity! Grooming “helps regulate body temperature”, “promotes blood flow”, “keep[s] their coats clean” and “distributes natural oils evenly around their coat[s], allowing them to stay warm and dry”, “serves as a sign of affection between cats” and “strengthens social bonds”, and reduces stress and anxiety. (When cats groom one another, or humans, it’s called allogrooming.)
. . . have brains very (90%!) similar to humans’!
Cats and humans “process memories, emotions, and the five senses” in the same way, and cats dream just like we do..
. . . have “an incredible sense of smell . . .
. . . which is up to 14 times stronger than that of humans”!
. . . “can jump up to six times their height, a distance in excess of five feet”!
. . . have the “largest eyes relative to their head size of any mammal”!
They have “an acute sense of sight and can see exceptionally well in complete darkness–approximately six to 10 times better than humans can….”–and they have significantly better peripheral vision than humans. But, they are far-sighted (“objects up close can be blurry”), and they do have “a blind spot under their nose”, meaning they “cannot see objects well that are directly in front of them, or under their nose[s] or chins”.
. . . are bakers of sorts!
When cats “knead[] with their paws”, they are often said to be “making biscuits”, a behavior they adopt early in life to stimulate milk flow from their mamas! Adult cats “knead whenever they are content and comfortable”.
. . . heal themselves and others with their purrs!
Though humans still don’t know why cats purr, we know how: purrs stem “from a special pad within the folds” of cats’ vocal cords, “which adds an additional layer of fatty tissue that enables the folds to vibrate (purr) at low frequencies.” Studies have shown that “the vibrations produced by a cat’s purr can actually help to promote bone growth and repair”, as well as “help to reduce stress and promote relaxation”! (Humans with a feline companion actually “reduce the[ir] risk of stroke and heart attack by a third”.)
. . . are crepuscular, not nocturnal!
Cats are “most active during dawn and dusk”!
. . . are lactose-intolerant!
Despite classical depictions of cats lapping up milk or cream, cats cannot digest lactose (so dairy products can make them sick).
. . . spend about two-thirds of their lives sleeping!
Far from being lazy, this behavior is “typical” for “predatory animals (like the other big cats they’re descended from)”!
. . . have been video stars since the 1800s!
In 1894, Thomas Edison “filmed two cats ‘boxing’ inside a ring” – “history’s first example of a cute cat video” – and, today, cats rule the internet.