10 Amazing Cat Facts

TODAY LFOUND OUT 10Amazing Facts 10Cat TodayI Foundout.com TOP SECRET THE CIA ONCE TRIED USING CATS As SPIES In the 1960s, the CIA spent 5 years and over $20 million training spy I guess it's not as strange as it might first seem. stealthy, smart, Cats are cats. fast, can jump tall objects, and most people when cat will pet it, not a these they see For a spy. it's a 3/4 inch assume transmitter in a female grey and They the CIA put microphone in its ear canal and had the antenna run along its back all the way to the tip of its tail. However, since cats reasons a hid then cat. are relatively small in size, the batteries that were used were smal1 and could only record short conversations. It took some time to get each component just right, making sure the cat had full mobility and didn't lick or scratch at the audio devices hidden inside it. white The operation was the easy part; the hard part was training the cat to follow directions. As anyone who has ever owned a cat, or been around a cat for any length of time can tell you, getting a cat to do anything other than what it wants to do is nothing short of amazing. After 5 years of training and $20 million, the CIA felt they could get their special cat agent to move in specific directions and go to specific locations command (as long as it didn't get distracted, bored or hungry. None-the-less, they decided to field test their $20 million, highly trained acoustic kitty agent. They drove a van across the street from a known Soviet meeting place in Washington, D.C. The targets were two men sitting on a bench in a nearby park. They opened the door and deployed their secret kitty agent. The agent took a few steps and was hit and killed by a passing taxi cab. Needless to say it was a catastrophe (pun intended). The "Acoustic Kitty" project was then scrapped and was called a complete failure. on is almost all the time). which, for cat, From the Why Cats Like Cațņip Field Cafnip, which is a perennial herb in the mint family, contains a chemical called "nepetalactone" that is released when cațnip is crushed. When cats get a whiff of nepetalactone, most will start rubbing themselves against it, playing around with it, somețimes eațing it, and generally will act quife bizarrely. It is thought, but not known exactly, that this chemical mimics certain feline pheromones, specifically their theoretical facial pheromones (it isn't known whelher these actually exist, but many researchers think so, which is why cats probably like to rub their faces on various things). Despițe the apparent drug-like effect, if isn't thought that cațnip is in any way harmful to cats, nor is it thought that it is addicțive. Inferestingly, not all cats respond to cafnip. Whatever genetic quirk that causes them to respond to nepetalactone is inherited and only about 70% of cats out there show a behaviora|ly difference around catnip. Earth-friendly pet products CATNIP LEAF AND FLOWER 0.5 OZ BAG a group Of cats The correct term for referring to a group of cats is 'clowder. Interestingly, there are also two other valid ways to refer to a grou of cats, other than just saying "group of cats" or "cats". Those other two terms are 'clutter and 'glaring'.In addition to this, if one wants to refer to a group of wild cats, the correct terms are 'dowt and 'destruction'. A male cat, when neutered, is called a "gib", when not, is called a "tom". Female cats are known as "molly". İS calied a CIowder DOMESTIC CATS CAN FALL FROM ANY HEIGHT WITH A REMARKABLE SURVIVAL RATE This one seems like it shouldn't be true. Ho it turns out, a typical domestic cat's terminal velocity is sufficiently low, around 60-ish mph, that they can absorb the shock of the landing. This isn't to say they will absorb the shock without injury; Simply that they are more likely to survive the fall than not. ver, Specifically, according to a study done by the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 132 cats falling from an average of 5.5 stories and as high as 3Ź stories, the latter of which is more than enough for them to reach their terminal velocity, have a survival rate of about 90%, assuming they are brought in to treat their various injuries that may occur because of the impact with the ground. of those 132 catts included in the study, about 2/3 required Some ort of medical treatment as a result of their fall, and about half of those that required treatment (1/3 of the total cats brought in) would have died without medical aid. Now, it should be noted, unlike what many reports based on this study state, this DOES NOT imply that cats falling from any height should have a 90% survival rate given proper medical attention. The average height was only 5.5 štories, which is insufficient for the cats fo reach their terminal velocity This percentage is also potentially skewed because the cats that die on impat are obviously unlikely to be brought into the veterinarian clinic. Further, the cats that are uninjured (there are instances of cats falling from as high as 26 stories without any injurp are also not all göing to be bróught in, How much these fac tors would affect that "a0% rate isn't clear. Thus, one cannot say definitively that domestic cats should have a 90% survival rate from a fall from any height. However, this study did present a reasonable enough sample šize (132 cats) that the actual number shouldn't be drastically different than the stated rate. So while we can't say "90% survival rate, at least We can say they have an extremely good survival rate. CATS ARE NOT COLORBLIND The myth that cats and dogs colorblind fully are has been around for quite some time, despite the fact that it has been false for proven nearly half a century the University of Colorado, two In 1915 at scientists were trying to determine whether cats could see colors and so devised an experiment like so: two jars, one wrapped with gray paper and one wrapped with colored paper, were placed before the If the cat touched the colored jar with its cat. nose or paw or the like, it would get a tiny fish. If it touched the gray jar, it got nothing. After 18 months and 100,000 tries, the cats tested only correctly picked the colored jar around half the Given that the odds were 50/50 in the first time. place, it would seem from this that they couldn't see color. Given the large sample-size, this particular bit of accepted and that for time it was a. research was were completely "fact" cats considered colorblind. However, cats did have both cones and rods in their eyes, which seemed to fly in the face If they have both, why a more advanced electrodes, of the above research. Enter couldn't cats see color? experiment: using neurologists wired up a cat's brain and showed the cat various shades of color. that the cat's brain did respond and distinguished between many shades of color. scientific What they found was Hence, they could perceive color. THE SMALLEST ADULT CAT IN THE WORLD: The smallest adult cat on record was named Tinker Toy. Tinker Toy as an adult cat weighed just one pound, eight ounces and measured in at just 2.75 inches tall and 7.5 inches long. WHAT HAPPENS IF A CAT'S WHISKERS ARE DAMAGED OR CLIPPED It turns out, cat's whiskers are an essential sensory whiskers and it will cause them not only discomfort, but also to become confused and disorientated, among other negative side effects. Whiskers themselves are nothing more than a type of thick/long hair. The importance of whiskers lies in the fact that they are deeply rooted in follicles which are surrounded by a muscle tissue that is very rich in nerves and sensory cells. These nerve cells in the roots are then connected to a special area of the cat's brain. mechanism. Damage a cat's While whiskers serve many functions, the main function of whiskers is to work as a type of environmental scanning system. Interestingly enough, cats don't actually need to touch the objects with their whiskers to detect the object. The nerves at the base of the whiskers are actually sensitive enough to be able to pick up even small air movements which vibrate the whiskers. They are so sensitive, in fact, that cats can even pick up air movements indoors, such as air flowing around furniture, which lets the cat know there is an object there, even when it is pitch dark. This is essential for cats because they are far sighted and have trouble seeing things clearly close up. Being nocturnal in nature, this also helps them "see" more clearly at night while they hut. Understanding the basic function of cat's whiskers, it's not surprising how distressing it would be for a cat to lose their whiskers or have them damaged. Research has shown that cat's without whiskers have trouble estimate the size of openings and can easily get stuck. Also, due to the fact that whiskers are important to a cat's equilibrium, without them, they have trouble walking straight and have difficulty running. They also tend to get disoriented and fall. Experiments done with cats with whiskers cut short also show that they struggle to judge distances accurately and so will often misjudge jumping distances as well as occasionally run into things. CATS CAN SURVIVE WITHOUT EVER NEEDING TO DIRECTLY DRINK WATER Domestic cat's bodies are so efficient at not wasting water that they can survive on nothing but uncooked meat, with no other water source needed. This is thought to be a remnant of the fact that they were once few of the ways cats conserve water include: extremely dry feces; highly concentrated urine; and they do not sweat, nor need to as their bodies can handle external temperatures as high as 126° F to 133° F before showing signs of being overheated. probably desert anímals. A WHY BLACK CATS ARE CONSIDERED BAD LUCK Black Cats weren t always the butt of superstitions, feared, or even considered bad luck. In fact, in early Egyptian times, dating back as far as 3000 BC, cats (including black ones) were the rock stars of the animal world, held in high esteem; to kill one was considered a capital crime. It wasn't until the middle-ages in Europe that the black cat's rock star status started to go downhill as they began to be associated with so-called witches. The hysteria of witches practicing black magic had just hit Europe and alley cats were often cared for and fed by the poor lonely old ladies (funny how some things never change) later accused of witchery. Their cat companions, some of which were black ones, were deemed guilty of witchery by association. This belief was taken up a notch when a folklore involving a father and son in Lincolnshire in the 1560s started making the rounds. The pair were said to have been traveling one moonless night when a black cat crossed their path and dove into a crawl space. Naturally, they did what any guys would do, they threw rocks at the furry feline until the helpless injured creature scurried out into a woman's house, who at the time was suspected of being a witch. The next daY, the father and son came across the same woman and noticed she was limping and bruised and believed that to be more than just a coincidence. From that day on in Lincolnshire, it was thought that witches could turn into black cats at night. The belief of witches transforming themselves into black cats in order to prowl streets unobserved became a central belief in America during the Salem witch hunts. Even today the association of black cats and during rations, despite the holiday's religious beginnings. Thus, witches holds strong Halloween cele an animal once looked on with approbation became a symbol of evil omens in some parts of the World. However, in some cultures, the black cat is still revered and a symbol of good luck even today. CATS HAVE EXCEPTIONAL SENSES: * A cat's sense of smell is about twice that of a typical human. * Hearing: Most impressive of all their senses is their hearing which is some of the best of any animal. They can hear frequencies as low as 55 Hz and as high as 74 KHz. For reference, humans hearing range is typically between 31 Hz to 18 KHz and dog's hearing range is typically between 67 Hz and 44 KHz. °This extremely good hearing 'helps cats hunt rodents in that rodents often communicate in ultrasonic frequencies which the cats can hear. * Cats can see quite well in light levels as little as i/6 of what is required for humans to see well. They accomplish this largely via a tapetum lucidum, which réflects light passed through the retina back into the eye. They also have exceptionally large pupils for their body sizé. Should be noted, though, that while cats have exceptional night vision and ability to see far away objects člearly, they have horrible vision when looking at closé up objects, estimated to be around 20/100 on the human vision Scale. This, along with the fact that cats have a blind Spot in front of their nose, is why cats will sometimes appear not to recognize when food is placed right in front of them. 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