Cat breeds,Cat Senses and Cat Anatomy
The night vision of cats is six times greater than human beings.
For function of vision, Cats have more nerve cells in their
brain as compared to human beings and all other mammals. Cats
also have about three times more rods in their eyes as compared
to human beings so they can see better than human beings in dim
light. Cats have Peripheral vision and binocular vision which
enables it to accurately judge large distances. Eyes of cats
have a additional third eyelid or nictitating membrane which is
a thin fleshy membrane that is usually tucked away at the inner
corner of the eye. The third eyelid helps in protection and
cleaning of eye. Cats have highly developed sense of touch. The
skin of cats is covered with highly sensitive touch spots which
respond to the lightest pressure. Ear of cats can rotate up to
180 degrees in order to locate and identify even the faintest of
squeaks, peeps and rustling noises. Ears of cats have twelve
muscles.Domestic cats possess some colour vision.Cats sense of
hearing is one of the highest in animal kingdom. Hearing power
of cats is about three times greater than human beings. Hearing
power of cats is about two times greater than dogs. Cats can
hear sounds of upto 65kHz and dogs can hear sounds of upto
30kHz. There are more than forty thousand nerve fibres present
in the auditory nerve of cats as compared to human beings having
about thirty thousand. Sense of smelling in cats is highly
developed. Cats have fourteen times more smelling power than
human beings.The cats have additional smelling organ known as
jacobson's organ besides having nose. The jacobson's organ is
located in the upper surface of a cat's mouth. The sense of
taste in cats is as developed as sense of smell.The taste buds
are present in tongue of cats.Cats prefer salty and sour tastes
more than sweetness and bitterness. The tongue of cats is
covered with hooklike rough protuberances or papillae, that it
uses to rasp meat from bones and to groom itself. Out of all
domestic animals, only cats have true furs. Cats have both
undercoat fur and outer fur. The fur of cats are warm, soft,
shiny, silky and of various lengths depending upon breed of cat.
The cats can have upto two hundred hairs for every square
millimeter on their body. There are more than hundred breed of
cats. There are about forty internationally recognized breeds of
cats which differs mainly in their personality, intelligence,
coat colour, coat colour pattern, body size, ear size, ear
shape, nose size, eye colour, tail length, tail shape, thickness
of tail, fur length, face shape and eye shape. Out of all cat
breeds, the Persian breed of cats have longest and thickest
fur.The coat of Russian Blue cats is blue coloured. The Manx
breed of cats do not have a tail. The largest breeds of domestic
cat are Ragdoll and Maine Coon. The Siamese breed of cats is
exceptionally more vocal.The Maine Coon breed of cats looks
somewhat like a Raccoon. The American Curl breed of cats have
ears that curl away from the face. Many cat encyclopedias are
now available at http://www.amazon.com/. Cat Encyclopedias like
Catlopedia, The Ultimate Encyclopedia Of Cats, Cat Breeds and
Cat Care by Alan Edward, The Encyclopedia of the cat by Michael
Pollard and The cat - A Complete Guide by Claire Bessant are now
available at http://www.amazon.com/.Cats are free from many
skeletal abnormalities that can affect dogs. All cats have
flexible spine. The cat's body has great elasticity. Because the
vertebrae of the spinal column are held together by muscles
rather than by ligaments, as in humans, the cat can elongate or
contract its back, curve it forward, or oscillate it along the
vertebral line. A cat uses its tail for balancing while jumping
or falling. All cats have an excellent sense of balance, which
enables them to leap and pounce with ease. Several spongy pads
of thick skin cover the bottoms of a cat's feet. The pads
cushion the paws and enable a cat to move quietly. Cat hunts and
kills birds, rats, mice, insects, rabbits, frogs, squirrels,
lizards, snakes, fishes, cockroaches and other small animals.
Cats are most skillful hunters out of all other animals. A cat
usually hunts alone instead of hunting in groups because hiding
and pouncing cannot be successful in a group whereas dogs always
hunt in groups.Cats also have a keen sense of balance and can
easily walk along the tops of narrow fences or along narrow
ledges.All cats are excellent fisherman. Cats can be used as
catchers of fish. Cats run faster than any other animal. A
domestic cat can run at speeds of upto thirty miles per hour.
Cheetah run faster than any animal. Cheetah can run at speeds of
seventy miles per hour. Cats are also excellent swimmers. Some
cats can do swim for pleasure and some cats specially the tiger
swim for long distances. All cats walk on the tips of their
toes, not on the soles of their feet. The Giraffe and Camel are
the only known animals that walk on the tips of their toes
similar to cats. Cats are sleepiest of all mammals. A cat sleeps
for sixteen to eighteen hours in a day.Whiskers are long
straight hairs that protrude from the lips of cats. The whiskers
are sensitive to air currents. Whiskers or vibrissae are
delicate sensitive organs of touch equivalent to fingertips of
human beings. Whiskers may help catch reflections of sound, thus
serving somewhat the same function as antennae do in other
animals.Cats have about twenty four movable whiskers, twelve on
either side of their nose. Small groups of whiskers are also
situated on other parts of the body as well such as on the outer
edges of cheeks, above the eyes and on the back of the front
legs.The useful websites related to cats are
http://directory.google.com op/recreation/pets/cats,
http://www.petplace.com/ , www.pbs.org/nature/excats,
http://www.i-love-cats.com/,
http://www.thecatbasket.freeserve.co.uk/,www.nhm.org/cat.For
information about cats visit the website of animal planet
channel cat guide at
http://animal.discovery.com/guides/cats/cats.html. For more
information on cats visit the website of Encyclopedia Encarta at
http://www.encarta.msn.com/,visit the encyclodedia Aniwa at
http://www.aniwa.com.