How your cat nose what it’s smelling! Felines have a ‘super-quick’ sense of smell, study finds

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.

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.