The Domesticated Hunter - The Anatomy Of The House Cat

my pet THE ANATOMY OF THE HOUSE CAT THE DOMESTIC HUNTER Cats have rough tongues covered in tiny thornlike projections, called papillae. This helps with grooming and scraping meat away from bones. Sharp claws help to grasp prey whilst hunting and to climb objects such as trees. They are retractable so that they don't get in the way when walking and running. Cats have 32 muscles in their outer ear (humans only have 6). They can independantly rotate their ears 180 degrees. A cat can't climb head first down a tree because every claw on a cat's paw points the same way. To get down from a tree, a cat must back down. A cat's nosepad is ridgid with a unique pattern, just like the fingerprint of a human. Cats don't have sweat glands over their bodies like humans do. Instead, they sweat only through their paws. The front teeth are designed for grasping- and tearing meat. The back teeth grind The jaw cannot move A cat's heart beats nearly twice as fast as a human heart, at 110 to 140 beats a minute. food into smaller sideways, therefore they are unable to chew big chunks of food. pieces. Fur protects the body from sun, cold, scratches, insect bites and also helps to regulate body temperature. Eating grass rids a cats' system of any fur and helps with digestion. A cat has 230 bones in its body. A human only has 206. A cat has no collarbone, so it can fit through any opening the size of its head. Cats have kidneys that filter out the salt from the water so they can re-hydrate themselves with sea water. Ever wonder why cats always seem to land on their feet? Well, they actually don't violate the laws of physics; instead they place themselves in an umbrella position, much like a skydiver. to slow down the fall. Also, due to their keen sense of direction that can easily tell which side is up then adjust their body accordingly. Charles Darwin noted that cats have a longer intestine compared with larger felines like the tiger and lion. This may have developed during domestication when they began to scavenge table scraps. Cats are obligate carnivores. This means they cannot easily digest anything that isn't meat. Cats are extremely sensitive to vibrations. Cats are said to detect earthquake tremors 10 or 15 minutes before humans can. Cats can see 6 times better in the dark than people, made possible by a structure behind the retina, called the tapetum. Cells in the tapetum act like a mirror, reflecting light that passes between the rods and the cones back to the photoreceptors and giving them another chance to pick up the small amount of light available at night. This is what makes cats' eyes glow in the dark. RETINA TAPETUM LUCIDUM LENS CHOROID INCIDENT LIGHT FROM FLASH REFLECTED UGHT PUPIL CORNEA Sources: http://facts.randomhistory.com/interesting-facts-about-cats.html http://exclusivelycats.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/feline-sense-and-scents-ability-part-4.html