Super sense me a cat’s sense of hearing is absolutely incredible . Quite simply , they can hear high frequency sounds we cannot. They can also pick out the tone or pitch of sounds better than humans. In addition, a cat’s ability to locate the source of a sound is highly advanced. From a metre away, a cat can distinguish between sounds from sources only three inches apart. All of these attributes make it quite easy for a cat to distinguish the sound of you opening the door to the cat-food cupboard from the sound of you opening the storeroom that holds the dreaded cat carrier. The cat’s ear is a marvel of feline engineering. Like a sophisticated satellite dish on a TV radar detector van turning to pick up a signal, the cat’s external ear, or pinna, rotates up to 180 degrees to locate and identify even the faintest of squeaks, shrieks or mouse-like rustling noises.
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While dogs are renowned for detecting high-pitched whistles far beyond human hearing, cats actually hear much higher frequencies than canines and are only slightly inferior at the low end of the frequency scale. The upper range for humans is 23,000hz, dogs is around 45,000hz, while 64,000hz is the top limit for felines. Cats also can detect the tiniest variances in sound, distinguishing differences of as little as one-tenth of a tone, which helps them identify the type and size of the prey emitting the noise. This heightened sense of hearing is key to the survival of wildcats, which depend on hunting to live. It also enables wild and domestic feline mothers to hear faint
squeals of distress from their kittens when they stray too far away from the safety of mum’s beady eyes. A cat up to one metre away from the origin of a sound can pinpoint its location to within a few inches in just six onehundredths of a second. Cats also can hear sounds at great distances – four or five times farther away than humans. Hardly surprising then, that your pet is at your feet once you’ve reached for that tin opener! First published on the ‘Your Cat’ website: www.yourcat.co.uk