Take our cat facts challenge!
How many of these cat facts do you know?
Cats are fascinating. It’s a fact! We wanted to set you a challenge – and find out who’s the top cat when its comes to cat facts. Read on, and give yourself a pat on the back for every fact you know…
Super senses
Cats are in the top three animals in the world when it comes to hearing, and the best among carnivores. They can hear sounds about twice as high as we humans can – up to a whopping 50,000hz.
Cats can swivel their ears to pinpoint different sounds with laser-like precision. From two metres away, they can distinguish two identical sounds just a hand’s width apart. And standing 20 metres away (about the length of a tennis court), they can tell the difference between sounds just 40cm apart.
In fact, cats have 32 muscles in their ears. That’s only a few less than us humans have in our entire face. This is because cats not only use their ears for hearing but for communication through body language too.
Cats have such sensitive nerve endings in their paws they can detect a mouse moving around underground. And they can detect vibrations too, with the three to six tiny whiskers they have on their front legs above the paw pads.
Clean machines
Why do cats bury their waste after going to the toilet? It might be because they were first domesticated in Egypt, in around 2000BC – today, a cat’s first instinct is still to bury it in sandy soil.
Cats bury their waste for a number of reasons to stay protected from predators, or from other cats when it doesn’t want to challenge whoever is dominant in the group.
All about cats
The smallest cat in the world is the Rusty Spotted Cat – they weigh just 1kg and fit in the palm of your hand. They live in the jungles of Sri Lanka – and, sadly, they don’t make good pets.
The oldest cat in the world lived for an astounding 38 years and 3 days! Her name was Creme Puff and she lived in Texas, USA from 1967 until 2005.
A tabby called McCavity once walked a whopping 500 miles in just three weeks. His owners moved between Scotland and Cornwall, but McCavity’s homing instinct was so strong he ran all the way back by himself.
The Van cat, which is a type of wildcat that lives in East Turkey, isn’t among those that dislike water. They will swim in lakes to get out of the intense heat and have even been known to catch fish while they’re taking a dip!
Faith and superstition
It’s not just domestic cats that get hair balls –in Africa, the hair ball of a lion has even been known to be used in protective amulets. These traditional magical items were said to grant the wearer the strength and power of a lion.
In France, some people believed their cats could predict the weather. For wind, it might be a cat rubbing its nose or digging claws into cushions. A paw behind the ear while grooming, meanwhile, indicated rain was on the way.
Some people believed that cats could cure warts. All the affected person had to do was rub a tortoiseshell cat’s tail across the wart during the month of May. We don’t recommend trying it!
So how did you do? Even if you knew a lot of these cat information facts already, we hope you learned some new cat info, too. Don’t forget to challenge your friends to find out how they do!
