Does a cat really have 9 lives?
Why is the Federal special force of National Security Guards in India called ''Black cat Commandos?''
What makes the cat family so adaptable in wild and domestic environment?
The answers are far more interesting than the questions. Cat is not just a simple word. It carries stealth, sleek, power and cunning within it. These are perhaps the qualities that enable cats to make it almost in any condition.
A domestic cat is the basic model for understanding feline behaviour. Most of the adaptive powers of a cat discussed here apply in greater capacity to it's wilder cousins like the Lions, tigers, cheetahs, leopards, panthers and jaguars.
A cat has 9 lives. Thanks to the 'Cat righting reflex'' : a cat's innate ability to orient itself on four feet, whenever it falls. It's flexible spine and tail enables it to follow the law of angular momentum. According to this law, the cat bends it's rear body to achieve a net angular momentum that enables it to somersault. It spreads it's entire body (similar to a parachute) during the fall to increase the 'drag' and slow their fall.
This is successfully accomplished because of it's light bones, thick fur and flexible muscle; not to forget the well adapted Vestibular canal.
Cats are known for their amazingly quick reflexes. The neural activity and the communication between the neurotransmitters of a cat's brain happen at a lightening speed and before the brain can register, the action has already been completed. Millions of years of evolution have improved the feline neuro physiology to an extent that the cats can perform a scratching reflex in less that 1/50th of a second.
When a cat lands a scratch on you, it usually comes out as an unexpected shock because the time required for senses to translate themselves into action is less than a second.
This is why the national security guards are called ''Black Cat Commandos''. They are taught to master their reflexes to match a cat's.
Cat eyes have a tapetum lucidum that reflects any light entering a cat's retina back into the eye. This increases the scope of sensitivity to dim light, thus giving cats an excellent night vision.
To add to many of their adaptive capacities, they have an excellent auditory sense. Cats out do dogs and even humans when it comes to sound detection. They can detect sounds ranging from 55-79 khz. Their oute ears are movable and can amplify sounds.
A cat's whiskers are extremely sensitive to touch & vibrations in the environmental stimuli and help them navigate better. To aid with navigation and sensation, cats have dozens of movable whiskers over their bodies, especially their faces. These provide information on the width of gaps and on the location of objects in the dark, both by touching objects directly and by sensing air currents; they also trigger protective blink reflexes to protect the eyes from damage. You can compare cat whiskers to amazing radars that tell the animals everything they need to know about the objects (shape, size, distance and location).
A cat has been known to stun large predators such as a bear!!! Sounds unbelievably astonishing, doesn't it? Thanks to the quick claw reflexes! A relaxed feline will not have it's claws extended. But the time required to go from a retracted relax to a full blown clawy slap requires perhaps less than an eye blink. A 10 kg cat scaring off a 400 pound bear may seem astonishing but speed and guts can win against brute strength.
Cats are small, but extremely gutsy and open to challenges. They will not prefer to run away from challenges. Their explorative nature will make them risk their lives to stand against a more powerful opponent. The picture below shows the 'real CATTITUDE!''
In spite of all, cats are extremely emotional (just like humans and other animals). Animal behaviorists say that a cat purr itself has the capacity to show more than a hundred emotional shades. If you have a house cat, you will perhaps notice that cats love to cuddle and be cuddled at their own convenience, but the emotional comfort given by these lovely creatures is definitely a feeling worth an experience.
