Humans and cats have a similar range of hearing on the low end of the scale, but cats can hear much higher-pitched sounds, up to 64 kHz, which is 1.6 octaves above the range of a human, and even one octave above the range of a dog.
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Feet
Cats, like dogs, are digitigrades. They walk directly on their toes, with the bones of their feet making up the lower part of the visible leg.
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Nose
A domestic cat's sense of smell is about fourteen times as strong as a human's.
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Whiskers
To aid with navigation and sensation, cats have dozens of movable vibrissae (whiskers) over their body, especially their face.
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Whiskers
To aid with navigation and sensation, cats have dozens of movable vibrissae (whiskers) over their body, especially their face.
Cats have highly specialized teeth for the killing of prey and the tearing of meat. The premolar and first molar together compose the carnassial pair on each side of the mouth, which efficiently functions to shear meat like a pair of scissors. While this is present in canids, it is highly developed in felines. The cat's tongue has sharp spines, or papillae, useful for retaining and ripping flesh from a carcass. These papillae are small backward-facing hooks that contain keratin which also assist in their grooming.
As facilitated by their oral structure, cats use a variety of vocalizations for communication, including meowing, purring, hissing, growling, squeaking, chirping, clicking, and grunting.[7] Their types of body language: position of ears and tail, relaxation of whole body, kneading of paws, all are indicators of mood.
Ears
Thirty-two individual muscles in each ear allow for a manner of directional hearing:[17] a cat can move each ear independently of the other. Because of this mobility, a cat can move its body in one direction and point its ears in another direction. Most cats have straight ears pointing upward. Unlike dogs, flap-eared breeds are extremely rare (Scottish Folds are one such exceptional mutation.) When angry or frightened, a cat will lay back its ears, to accompany the growling or hissing sounds it makes. Cats also turn their ears back when they are playing, or to listen to a sound coming from behind them. The angle of cats' ears is an important clue to their mood.