Cats and human kind have a millennial mutual history. Cats have been domesticated thousands of years ago, because they were assisting them to resist rats and mice. Nowadays they are one of the most popular kinds of pets, and they are building connection to people very easily.
Despite that, cats like to do things in their own way. They have various unique characteristic distinguishing them from other species of mammals. This will be our actual topic, though we will highlight only few of those distinctive features. So here we go!
1. Nose of a cat is as individual as human fingerprints.
2. Valerian is a drug for 70-80% of cats. Cats are attracted by valerian herb because of actinidine contained in it has a similar smell to nepetelactone, an active compound of catnip. Valerian has a similar to catnip effect on cats, making them extremely active.
3. Cats can sleep up to 20 hours per day, though the average time of their inactivity Is 16 hours.
4. The cat righting reflex is a cat’s innate ability to orient itself as it falls in order to land on its feet. Cats are able to do this because they have an unusually flexible backbone and no functional clavicle (collarbone). The minimum height required for this to occur in most cats would be around 30 centimetres (12 in). Cats without a tail also have this ability, since a cat mostly moves its hind legs and relies on conservation of angular momentum to set up for landing, and the tail is in fact little used for this feat.
5. Cats have excellent night vision and can see at only one-sixth the light level required for human vision. This is partly the result of cat eyes having a tapetum lucidum, which reflects any light that passes through the retina back into the eye, thereby increasing the eye’s sensitivity to dim light. Despite common delusions, cats can’t see in total darkness, because there has to be any sort of light for them to be able to see.
6. We still don’t know why cats purr. It is certain that cats purr not only when in good mood, but when in stress and injured. A theory states that frequency of the purring from 24 to 140 Hz aids growth of muscles and bones.
7. Mostly only female cats have tricolor coat. Every cat can have white color, but other colors are contained in the X chromosome, one per chromosome. Females have two of X chromosomes, whilst males have one of it and additionally one Y chromosome, which doesn’t contain information about coloring. Despite this, some gene combinations allow males to have tricolor coats.
8. Cats rub against various object to warn other cats about their presence. This way cats mark their territory, or, for example, inform other cats that they are ready to reproduce. Despite this, an assumption that cats are smelly would be wrong. Cats are extremely neat so their pride can’t smell them out during hunt.
