7 Surprising Things Your Cat Can Sense But You CAN'T

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:05]Hey cat lovers, welcome back to the Purring Journal, the channel where we explore all things feline. Today we're going to be taking a look at seven surprising things your cat can sense but you can't. Whether it's their ability to feel a rustle of leaves through their paw pads or their possession of one of the most versatile senses of hearing in the animal kingdom, cats are truly amazing creatures. If you enjoy learning about cat facts, behavior tips, and more, subscribe to the channel so you never miss a video. Now, let's get started. One, smells humans miss. It's well known that cats have a powerful sense of smell. They have 40 times as many oldactory receptors as we do, which translates to a sense of smell about 14 times stronger than ours. What is less wellknown is that a cat's sense of smell is so strong that these amazing creatures create scent maps. maps of their environments based not on sight, but on the recognition of scents. This is also what allows lost cats to find their way back home on their own. Cats can detect familiar scents, sometimes up to four miles away. But the uniqueness of a cat's sense of smell doesn't stop there, because cats have a second way to smell things. This time, without even using their noses, they have a special organ in the roof of the mouth, right behind the incizers called a vomasal organ. It allows them to detect chemicals in a manner that's halfway between smelling and tasting. We can only imagine what this is like because humans have no equivalent sense. In fact, a cat's old factory system is so precise and developed that the best way to picture it is if you imagine how important sight is to how we function in the world. Cats communicate to each other constantly based on scent markings in ways that go completely over our heads. We simply lack an advanced enough sense of smell to detect the sorts of things which cats use for their daily interaction with the environment around them.

[00:01:56]Two sounds humans can't hear. Similar to smell, cats have an extremely well-developed sense of hearing. It is similar to ours but much more powerful.

[00:02:07]Being very small, their ears can pick up sounds in the ultrasonic region.

[00:02:11]Ultrasound are sounds with frequencies above the standard hearing range of humans. Their range of hearing is up to 64,000 hertz, far above the pitiful 20,000 hertz which we can boast of. This heightened range allows them to eaves drop on the squeaks of their favorite prey, which is an invaluable advantage in hunting. But the fascinating auditory talents of these fabulous felines don't stop there. According to one scientific review article published in 2018, as well as a host of other articles and studies, it turns out that there is an even more amazing ability at the disposal of a cat's ears. When it comes to hearing, almost all other mammals participate in a sort of trade-off. As ear and head sizes go down, high frequency hearing gets better, and low frequency hearing gets worse. Likewise, when ear and head sizes go up, high frequency hearing gets worse and low frequency hearing gets better. In other words, most mammals specialize either in high frequencies or low frequencies. Not cats, though. These innocentl looking creatures are able to pack an upper limit 40,000 hertz above ours, while their lower limit is only about 48 hertz above ours. This remarkable skill is the result of an extremely thin layer of bone, which separates the cat's middle ear into two parts. The end result is that cats indisputably rank among the most elite listeners in the entire animal kingdom.

[00:03:32]Three tiny vibrations we can't feel. It probably comes as no surprise at this point that cats have a sense of touch more advanced than our own. Cats have two main advantages over us when it comes to touch. The first are the pacinian corpusles, little onion-shaped bundles of tissue. Pretty much all mammals have them, but in cats they are refined to a level of sensitivity which puts them a step or two ahead of the competition. Located in the paws, these fascinating structures are designed to pick up and respond to fast vibrations and sudden changes in pressure. The practical function is simple. They are so precise that despite a cat's superb sense of hearing, a rodent scurrying through leaves can be felt by the hunter before heard. The second core advantage, certainly more familiar to you, is the whiskers. Despite popular belief, the primary purpose of a cat's whiskers is not to tickle our wrists and arms when the friendly feline wants some affection. Actually, whiskers are supercharged structures which cats utilize constantly in order to gain yet another edge in operating in the world around them. The first thing to understand about whiskers is that they are partially embedded into the skin like human hairs. Unlike human hairs, however, around 10% of a whisker's length is embedded. This embedded portion called the whisker's root is filled with many mechano receptors. Each receptor is equipped to detect minute changes in pressure and direction and deliver that information to the cat's brain without a moment's delay. The whiskers are so sensitive and the mechano receptors so fast. Some say that if they brush against prey in the dark, the cat can strike with the speed of a closing mouse trap.

[00:05:07]Four, seeing in near darkness. The only component missing in order to have the perfect predator is sight. And naturally, cats have this sense perfectly directed towards hunting as well. For their body size and weight, they are truly unrivaled predators. The first advantage to note about a cat's vision is the size of the eye and the pupil, both fairly large when compared to the size of a cat's head. The larger pupil lets more light in which increases the ability to see in low light situations. And on top of this, cats have a layer of tissue in their eyes, which we don't have at all. located behind their retinas. It is called the topedum lucidum which further increases low light vision and is also the cause of that familiar reflection which can be observed when a light is shown on their eyes in the dark. As a result of these advantages, cats can see well with only a sixth of the light which is necessary for the average human. Moreover, cats are equipped with a field of view of about 200°, a step up from our 180°, which is just a further emphasis on their specialization as master hunters.

[00:06:08]One remarkable difference between a cat's eyes and our own is that they are far less sensitive to colors than we are. In fact, they are red green color blind. This is because their eyes have six times as many rods than us, but far fewer cones. Rods are responsible for low light vision and motion detection, exactly what a kpuscular hunter needs, while cones are responsible for highlight vision.

[00:06:31]Five. Illness and death. Having heard a handful of some of the unique powers of a cat's senses, it should be entirely expected that these senses commonly come together and allow cats to detect things which are beyond our ability to recognize. One example is the fairly well doumented ability which cats have of detecting illnesses, diseases, and perhaps even cancerous tumors in humans.

[00:06:54]You may have experienced your cat curling up to you while you were unwell.

[00:06:58]The vomo nasal organ mentioned earlier can pick up extremely slight chemicals in the air. And even though it goes right over our heads or maybe over our noses, every time we get sick, there are slight changes in our hormones. And these do not go unnoticed by our astute felines. More amazingly still, cats can use this organ to detect infections and cancerous tumors. A human body with an infection or cancerous tumor produces chemicals called volatile organic compounds which it releases through the breath and sweat. Cats can easily detect these chemicals and they know it means something is off. Cats can even tell if you have high blood pressure. The unparalleled sensitivity of cats to even the slightest vibration means that if your cat is curled against your chest, they will definitely notice if your heart rate is increased or if you have a shortness of breath. Both symptoms associated with high blood pressure.

[00:07:48]There is even evidence that cats can detect impending death. Although this is not a wellressearched field of science, there is one article published in the New England Journal of Medicine about the life of a cat named Oscar who lived in a nursing home and predicted around 100 patient deaths over the course of his time there. The original paper written by a doctor at Oscar's nursing home will be linked in the description in case you're interested in learning more.

[00:08:12]Six. Incoming storms. Many cat guardians have reported their feline friends acting up seemingly randomly until a storm suddenly comes up on the horizon.

[00:08:22]There are plenty of stories of cats predicting bad weather. In fact, as far back as ancient Egypt, cats have been brought on boats to act as forecasts.

[00:08:30]But how do cats actually do it? Again, this fascinating trait is the result of several heightened feline senses working together. The keen ears of a cat can pick up the rumble of thunder long before we can. And yet again, their noses and incredible sensitivity to vibrations help them to have this perception of the world far above ours.

[00:08:49]The powerful nose of a cat can pick up that familiar scent of rain from a much longer distance than we can, as well as the metallic scent of lightning, further alerting them to oncoming inclement weather. Moreover, before rain or a thunderstorm, the air pressure drops, and cats can detect this change in pressure with their delicate whiskers, as well as their finely tuned inner ear.

[00:09:09]And while we're on the topic of natural disasters, the pacinian corpusles in a cat's paws can feel the vibrations resulting from oncoming earthquakes or tsunamis long before any human will feel them.

[00:09:22]Seven, finding their way home. One of the most fascinating abilities of cats, and perhaps one of the least documented, is their magnetic sense. Some research suggests that cats can sense the Earth's magnetic field and use it to aid them in direction, especially when it comes to finding their way back home. There was an experiment done in 1922 in which a cat was taken away from home multiple times without being able to see where she was being taken. Then she was released and was observed to find her way back home. It might be tempting to say that she was using her sense of smell to backtrack the way she was taken, but she never took the route that was used to release her. Later in 1954, a more scientifically rigorous experiment was done in Germany, and it provided even more evidence that cats have some method of homing by a means other than sight or scent. How exactly cats do this is still unknown, but research on the subject has become increasingly common, and hopefully soon it will be more fully understood so that we can appreciate the diverse abilities of our wonderful and astonishing cats to an even more full degree. That's all for today, friends. We hope you learned something about the amazing powers of our feline companions. They are truly creatures worthy of our respect. Now, we would love to hear from you. Have you caught your cat doing any of these things? Let us know in the comments below. And if you enjoyed this list, we invite you to check out one of these awesome videos next, including one about weird things your cat does when you're not home. We'll see you there, cat lovers.