As an owner of cats, I spend my fair share of time idly
wondering how these little creatures that live in the world see me and my home.
What do I look like to my cats? Do they think I’m just a big, dumb cat? Do the
words I say when I talk to my cats sound the same to them as their howling and
chirping sounds to me? Why does Max sit in the other room and make noises that
alarm my guests? Finally, I decided to investigate.
According
to Dr. John Bradshaw, author of “Cat Sense,” my cats may not exactly think
of me as though I was another cat, but cats do interact with humans exactly the
way they interact with other cats. When cats knead, purr, or rub up against
your leg, they’re demonstrating the same behavior they used to get affection
from their mothers as kittens -- and when you pet the cat, you’re basically
responding the same way Mama Cat did when she groomed her little babies. Unlike
dogs, for example, domestic cats have not evolved a specific set of behaviors with
which to interact with humans, probably because they haven’t been bred for
specific purposes like dogs have. This leads scientists like Bradshaw to
conclude that cats don’t really see humans as different from themselves,
although I don’t know about that because I’ve never seen my cats ask each other
for treats.
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| Though to be fair, they probably would if they had thumbs. |
As for how my cats actually see physically see me, well,
they do it with their eyes. Ha.
Live Science
reports that cats have a much wider field of peripheral vision – about 200
degrees to our 180s degrees. Cats are also nearsighted, and can only clearly
see objects within about 20 feet. That means they can probably see my face, which
is something I’ve always wondered.
As you may be aware, cats have great night vision, thanks to
their large corneas, elliptical eye shape, but also because of their tapetum, a
layer of reflective tissue that directs a larger amount of light to the retina.
Cats have between six and eight times more light-sensitive rod cells than
humans, which help them to more easily perceive the spirits of the restless
dead I mean see in the dark. The tapetum in cat’s eyes may allow them to see
different wavelengths of light, so that ghosts stand out more sharply against
the nighttime shadows. Cats can also spot motion in the dark far more easily
than humans.
Cats can’t see all of the colors that we can, since we have
more color-sensitive cone cells in our eyes. Humans, as you’re aware, can see a
range of shades of green, red and blue. Cats, however, may only see blues and
grays, although the results of a study published earlier this year in the Proceedings
of the Royal Society B suggest that cats
can see colors on the UV spectrum that humans can’t see.
Human eyes don’t allow a lot of UV light to reach the
retina, a fact that scientists credit for our unusually sharp vision. Cats’
eyes, on the other hand, are sensitive to UV light, and can presumably see
brilliant patterns and colors on objects like birds’ wings, flower petals, and
sheets of paper. This, the study authors speculate, may be why cats love paper
and, presumably, cardboard boxes so much.
