Between their kitty claws and heightened senses, your young cat is the “purrfect” predator. Learn more about cat senses vs. human senses.
Sight
You may think of cats as having phenomenal eyesight for tracking their prey, but this comes with some caveats. Thanks to the rods in their eyes, their ability to dilate their pupils very wide and the reflective layer in the back of their eyes called the tapetum lucidum, it’s true that cats have far superior night vision compared to us. This allows cats to hunt well in the evening, night and early morning. However, humans often have better eyesight in the daylight.
Sound
Humans and cats are similar when it comes to lower frequency sounds, but when it comes to high frequencies, your cat has you beat. While humans can hear frequencies of around 20,000 hertz, cats can hear around 64,000 hertz, or about 1.6 octaves higher than a human can hear. This allows your cat to easily hear the little squeaks and noises of their prey.
Touch
Touch is hard to compare between cats and humans, but one aspect of the feline sensation of touch that we’re undoubtedly lacking is the benefit of whiskers. Whiskers, which are on the cat’s face and on the backs of their front legs, come in handy for finding their way through tight or dark spaces.
Taste
Humans win on this one. While humans have over 9,000 taste buds, cats only have several hundred. Cats show a preference towards savory/umami tastes and a strong aversion to bitter tastes. Cats have limited to no ability to taste sweetness.
Smell
Your cat can smell much better than you. In fact, a cat’s sense of smell is estimated to be 14 times stronger than a human’s. Cats have around 40 times more odor-sensing cells in their nose than humans do.
Smell is thought to play a very large role in a cat’s appetite and how much a cat enjoys their food.
Cats also have a well-developed vomeronasal organ, which is between their nose and mouth, with the openings just behind their upper front teeth. This organ is used to sense pheromones in a method described as a combination of smelling and tasting.
