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Of all the cat's finely tuned senses, its sensitivity to touch is perhaps the most sophisticated and wondrous.
An array of pressure-sensitive touch receptors and a network of message-carrying nerves keep a feline in constant contact with its physical environment. Whether a cat is hunting, eating, playing or simply sleeping, this unbroken communication with the world contributes mightily to its split-second reaction time. Whiskers
Facial whiskers complement the cat's already keen eyesight. Shorter carpal vibrissae, less prominent behind the wrists of the cat's front legs, help tree-climbing felines land safely and feel for prey while hunting. - Located above the eyes, on the cheeks and muzzle and on the chin and lips, the facial vibrissae are especially useful in the dark. Just as a cat's owner might rely on outstretched hands to grope around a pitch-black room, a feline navigates through the darkness of night with its whiskers leading the way.
- Whether in the wilderness or the family room, the facial vibrissae will register any minute shift in an air current, helping the cat skirt round a tree or the leg of a chair.
- These whiskers also serve as guides to gauge the distance between two objects, telling the cat whether or not it can squeeze between them without getting stuck.
- Because facial whiskers are so closely related to nocturnal vision, those sported by domestic cats and wild night hunters such as leopards are proportionally longer than those of daytime hunters such as cheetahs.
- Losing or breaking a whisker can diminish hunting prowess in a cat; the animal may even bump into objects at night until a new whisker grows to replace the absent one.
- The superciliary whiskers above the eyes and the genal whiskers on the cheeks are less rigid and distinctly less mobile than the mystacials. They play an important, but less spectacular role. Whenever these whiskers are touched, they cause the lids to blink, thus protecting the eyes from injury.
Cats can control the movement of their whiskers, especially the long and rigid whiskers, called mystacials, that protrude sideways from the muzzle. Because their eyes cannot focus well on objects close-up, such as prey they hold in their mouths, cats will rotate these whiskers down and around to check the captive for signs of life. The chin and lip, or mandibular, whiskers help the cat direct the killing nape bite. When eating or fighting, cats pull their whiskers back and out of food or harm's way. At night, they push the mystacials and mandibulars forward to use as sensors while they navigate through the darkness. Coat and Skin
Scattered among the regular hairs of a cat's coat are larger single hairs, called tylotrichs, that pick up sensory information in the same way that whiskers do. Feline skin is covered by millions of touch receptors that are hypersensitive to pressure, air currents and temperature. Considering the sensitivity of these receptors, cats have a surprising tolerance to heat. They even revel in it. The cat's African ancestry is often used to explain its penchant for warm firesides and hot car hoods — provided the temperature does not exceed 125 degrees Fahrenheit, or 52 degrees Centigrade. (Humans generally cannot withstand heat over 112 degrees Fahrenheit, or 44 degrees Centigrade.) - The feline's nose and paw pads are very sensitive to temperature. Adapted for the hunt, the paw pads are loaded with touch receptors, but have little insulation against temperature extremes. Felines wield their sensitive paws to evaluate the texture and density of potential prey. After dispatching a victim, both wild and domestic cats are often observed pawing it to check for remaining signs of life before picking it up in their mouth.
- The extreme sensitivity of the cat's paw has led to some speculation about the feline's ability to feel vibrations or tremors in the ground preceding phenomena such as earthquakes. Animals have been known to exhibit strange behavior before such events, possibly because their highly refined sensitivity enables them to sense minute vibrations in their limbs.
A cat's reaction to physical contact depends on where it is touched. As any cat owner soon learns, cats enjoy being rubbed under the chin, behind the ears, and down the back to the base of the tail. Even in the wild, these are the same places cats nuzzle or groom each other. Touching tails, bellies or feet, however, may provoke an unwelcome response. Contact with these areas is believed to produce discomfort, and no cat worth its salt puts up with human-induced discomfort for more than an instant before responding with a scratch or nip. |
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