During the middle ages cats were believed to have supernatural powers as a result of their keen senses that were superior to humans. Cats were able to see and hear things people could not. Now that we have a greater understanding of cats, we know that there is no black magic involved; rather cats have heightened senses which help them survive as solitary night time hunters.

Cats have ears that are specially adapted to hear the soft, squeaky sounds of the tiny rodents that are their prey. They can hear sounds three times higher than humans and their large ears can move forward, backward and sideways to better locate the source of the sound.  By moving their ears as they listen, cats are able to determine the source of a sound with excellent accuracy. The sensitive hearing of cats helps them to locate their prey during a hunt.

In the wild, cats do most of their hunting at night which is why a cat’s vision is superior to a human at night but inferior to a human in daylight. Cats cannot see in total darkness; however they need only 20% of the light intensity that people need to be able to see at night. Their eyes have cells that enable them to see movement and objects at very low light levels helping them to more easily locate prey. Unfortunately cats are far less skilled at distinguishing objects in comparison to humans; they compensate for this with their amazing ability to see motion, which they can detect much more quickly than humans. During the day time cats rely on their smell and sound senses more.

A cat like many animals relies heavily on its sense of smell. Its sense of smell is fourteen times stronger than a human which is attributed to the fact that Humans have only 5 million cells in thei noses to help sense odours and cats have an astonishing 200 million of these cells. They have a scent organ in the roof of their mouth called the Jacobson’s organ. The organ analyses air that enters the mouth, rather than the nose, to detect odours. At PETstock South Melbourne we sometimes get customers that say they are struggling to get their cat to eat. A good way to help encourage eating is to take advantage of their strong smelling nose and give them food with a stronger sent.

Cat taste senses are actually less developed than human taste senses. Humans have approximately 9,000 taste buds, while cats have only 475. Also unlike humans cats are not very sensitive to sweetness or salt; their tastebuds are there to help detect the protein and fat they need to survive.

Of course cats are also sensitive to touch! Their most sensitive places are their face, paws and whiskers. A cat’s whiskers are the most sensitive part of its body. They contain special hairs set deep in the skin called vibrissae. A cat will be aware of the tiniest movement in the air because of his amazing sense of touch. This helps cats to be such efficient hunters.

Not knowing the difference of a cat’s senses to a human, many people observed its behaviour as magical. Some cultures even worshiped a cat as a god. Hence, the lores and legends developed over time. Secrets of the Cat: It’s Lore, Legend and Lives available through Amazon books goes back in time and reviews stories of its behavior.