Cats… actually can’t see objects that are within 30 centimeters of them! What?! How do they catch mice then? The answer is: excellent motion detection skills + whiskers. For cats, hunting can be broken down into two main parts: detecting and pouncing.
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Detection
This process relies on the cat’s inherited dynamic detection abilities. As soon as something moves within their field of vision, the cat’s eyes send signals to its brain. They can analyze whether a scene has changed, and they do so at a frequency of up to 70 times per second—far more efficiently than humans. Because of this, cats are extremely sensitive to moving objects, such as a twitching toy, a running mouse, or a fluttering insect. Of course, you’ve probably noticed that for cats, this impulse to catch something is often completely uncontrollable… it’s almost like instinct driving them to chase and pounce… However, it’s exactly this ability, combined with their low-light vision, that has helped cats adapt to the natural world. It’s an evolutionary adaptation.
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Pouncing
This part is even more interesting. Have you ever noticed that when a cat spots its prey and prepares to strike, its whiskers move forward and converge? Does this behavior have any special meaning? To find out, scientists used ultra-high-speed cameras to observe and record a cat’s hunting process. When they played the footage in slow motion, they discovered that throughout the entire “hunting” process, the cat’s gaze wasn’t fixed on the prey. It wasn’t until the whiskers made contact with the prey that the cat actually pounced. What’s more, when the prey gets close, the cat isn’t grabbing the prey directly—it’s actually grabbing its own whiskers. This means that when the prey is close, the cat is using its whiskers to sense the position of the prey, not relying on its eyesight. In a sense, a cat’s whiskers are like a visually impaired person’s cane, helping them perceive the world from a different perspective.Speaking of cat whiskers, they’re really fascinating. From a young age, we’re taught that a cat’s whiskers should never be trimmed. Why? Because the length of a cat’s whiskers corresponds to the width of its body. Cats use their whiskers to determine whether they can fit through a narrow space, like a mouse hole, avoiding getting stuck. While it might seem like a superstition, it’s actually true. Cats use their whiskers to judge if they can pass through a tight area. And it’s not just the whiskers on their cheeks—there are also longer, stiffer hairs above their eyes and at their ankles. These whiskers, which are connected to nerve endings, complement their vision and help cats sense the world in a whole new way.
Alright, to sum it up: Although cats can’t clearly see objects within 30 centimeters of themselves, they have excellent motion detection abilities. Combined with their highly sensitive whiskers, they’re able to fully explore and perceive the world around them.
