How your cat nose what it’s smelling! Felines have a ‘super-quick’ sense of smell, study finds
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How your cat smells what it smells! Felines have a ‘super fast’ sense of smell that makes them extra efficient at sniffing out food, study finds
- Scientists have discovered the secret to cats’ finesse in detecting food
- Cats have noses that act as high-tech equipment for chemical analysis in the laboratory
It may seem that your cat has an uncanny ability to sniff out treats.
Now scientists have discovered the secret to felines’ finesse in tracking down food.
Research shows that cats have noses that act like high-tech chemical analyzers commonly found in the lab.
A complex collection of tightly coiled bony airway structures is behind their amazing sense of smell and works similarly to parallel coiled gas chromatographs — laboratory equipment used to analyze the chemical composition of substances.
Ohio State University scientists created a 3D computer model of a cat’s nose and simulated how an inhalation of air containing common cat food odors would flow through the coiled structures.
It may seem that your cat has an uncanny ability to sniff out treats. Now scientists have discovered the secret to cats’ finesse in detecting food (stock image)
Ohio State University scientists created a 3D computer model of a cat’s nose and simulated how an inhalation of air containing common cat food odors would flow through the coiled structures
They found that the air splits into two streams.
One air stream is cleaned and moistened before being sent to the lungs, while the other air stream quickly and efficiently delivers the scent to the system responsible for smelling, known as the olfactory area.
This allows cats to smell very quickly, rather than waiting for the air to filter through the breathing zone used to breathe, the team said.
The air sent through the tube for ‘fragrance’ is then recirculated in ducts when it gets there.
Senior author Kai Zhao said, “It’s like sniffing, the air shoots there and then gets processed for a much longer time.
“It’s a very good design when you think about it.
‘For mammals, the sense of smell is very important in finding prey, identifying danger, finding food sources and tracking the environment.
‘Simulation of air and odor flow through the virtual cat’s nose showed that it appears to operate similarly to a gas chromatograph coiled in parallel, increasing the efficiency of the basic technique through the use of multiple tubes branching off from one fast gas stream. ‘
The findings were published in the journal Plos Computational Biology.
THE CATS OF ERNEST HEMINGWAY
Ernest Hemingway pictured himself over breakfast with a group of polydactyl cats eating at his feet
Ernest Hemingway was a cat lover who kept them in the home he shared with his second wife Pauline Pfeiffer at their Spanish Colonial home in Key West, Florida.
The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum is home to about 40-50 polydactyl (six-toed) cats.
Polydactyly is a genetic condition that causes a person to be born with extra digits. It is inherited from a dominant gene and can occur in multiple species.
The writer was given a white six-toed cat by a ship’s captain in the 1930s, and some of the cats living on the museum grounds are descendants of that original cat, named Snow White.
To this day, many of Snow White’s descendants roam the grounds of Hemingway Home, and because Key West is so small, it’s not unlikely that many of the cats on the island are related.
About half of the cats in the museum have the physical polydactyl trait, but they all carry the polydactyl gene in their DNA, meaning those with 4 and 5 toes can still have or father six-toed kittens.
There are 54 cats living on the property, all of them descendants of Snow White.
To this day, many of Snow White’s descendants roam the grounds of Hemingway Home, and because Key West is so small, it’s not unlikely that many of the cats on the island are related.