Facts About Cat Anatomy & Physiology

• A house cat’s genome is 95.6 percent tiger , and they share many behaviors with their jungle ancestors, says Layla Morgan Wilde , a cat behavior expert and the founder of Cat Wisdom 101. These behaviors include scent marking by scratching, prey play, prey stalking, pouncing, chinning, and urine marking.
• Cats are believed to be the only mammals who don’t taste sweetness .
• Cats are nearsighted , but their peripheral vision and night vision are much better than that of humans.
• Cats are supposed to have 18 toes (five toes on each front paw; four toes on each back paw).
• Cats can jump up to six times their length.
• Cats’ claws all curve downward, which means that they can’t climb down trees head-first . Instead, they have to back down the trunk.
• Cats’ collarbones don’t connect to their other bones, as these bones are buried in their shoulder muscles.
• Cats have 230 bones , while humans only have 206.
• Cats have an extra organ that allows them to taste scents on the air, which is why your cat stares at you with her mouth open from time to time.
• Cats have whiskers on the backs of their front legs, as well.
• Cats have nearly twice the amount of neurons in their cerebral cortex as dogs.
• Cats have the largest eyes relative to their head size of any mammal.
• Cats make very little noise when they walk around . The thick, soft pads on their paws allow them to sneak up on their prey — or you!
• Cats’ rough tongues can lick a bone clean of any shred of meat.
• Cats use their long tails to balance themselves when they’re jumping or walking along narrow ledges.
• Cats use their whiskers to “feel” the world around them in an effort to determine which small spaces they can fit into. A cat’s whiskers are generally about the same width as its body. (This is why you should never, EVER cut their whiskers.)
• Cats walk like camels and giraffes : They move both of their right feet first, then move both of their left feet. No other animals walk this way.
• Male cats are more likely to be left-pawed , while female cats are more likely to be right-pawed.
• Though cats can notice the fast movements of their prey, it often seems to them that slow-moving objects are actually stagnant .
• Some cats are ambidextrous , but 40 percent are either left- or right-pawed.
• Some cats can swim .
• There are cats who have more than 18 toes. These extra-digit felines are referred to as being polydactyl .