Don't Be Surprised, Cats Have 4 Ears, Because All Cats Have Auxiliary Ears
The author saw a fun thing on a pet forum yesterday, where a cat owner posted asking because his cat seemed to have a malformed ear. He noticed that a very thin little ear had grown below his cat's ear and posted a picture.
Owner: "Why does my cat have 4 ears? Is this a disease?"
The cat's ears are also a play of interest.
A cat grew four ears, is the cat sick? In fact, it's not, cats' ears are a very powerful organ. Veterinary research shows that there are 32 muscles around a cat's ears, and these muscles can almost let a cat's ears rotate 280 degrees to receive sound, and their hearing is 6 times that of humans!
Most importantly, cats' hearing is three-dimensional. For example, when a sound is emitted at one place, the information a dog receives is that the sound comes from 2 o'clock direction. But a cat receives the information that the sound comes from 2 o'clock direction, 4 meters high!
So cats' hearing is stronger than dogs in some ways. If you call your cat at home and the cat doesn't answer, you know.
Cats' ears are divided into 3 types
Besides good hearing, cats' ears can be divided into 3 types. The first type is the most common, that is, the upright ears we see in life. Representative breeds include British Shorthair cats, Siamese cats, Ragdoll cats, etc.
Next are folded ears. Folded ears are different from upright ears. Folded ears are soft and droopy, which is very cute. Their representative breeds include Scottish Fold cats and some affiliated folded ear cats.
Finally, curled ears. Curled ears are the opposite of folded ears. Folded ears are bent inward, and curled ears are folded outward.
And curled ears, like folded ears, are also the result of genetic mutations. Currently, curled ear cats have become a kind of cat breed in themselves.
Every cat has 4 ears
Whether it's upright ears or folded ears, or even curled ears, they all have 4 ears, and this is a normal phenomenon. From a veterinary perspective, the extra pair of ears that a cat grows is called an auxiliary ear!
Each cat has an auxiliary ear, but the auxiliary ear is difficult to see. First, the auxiliary ear grows at the base of the cat's ear, covered by hair, so it's hard to see. Second, the auxiliary ear is smaller than the cat's normal ear, so it's easy to be ignored.
The function of the auxiliary ear
The auxiliary ear is not a deformity. Its function is to help cats collect sound, and let the sound repeatedly rotate in the ear shell, and even amplify the sound. We can compare a cat's ears to a ship's sail. Does a ship with one sail run faster, or a ship with multiple sails?
In fact, about auxiliary ears, there have been mentions in ancient China. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the vast palaces and courtyards in the imperial city were mostly made of wood, so they were plagued by rats. The imperial court looked for various ways to solve the rat problem. They found a cat in Sichuan and successfully solved the rat problem in the imperial palace.
It is worth mentioning that this cat's auxiliary ear was bigger than ordinary cats, which looked like it had four ears, so it was very good at catching rats. This cat is now the Sichuan Jianzhou cat, also known as the four-eared cat by posterity.
So if you find that your cat has grown a pair of ears below its ears, don't panic, and don't pull them with your hands. This is a cat's auxiliary ear, and it's part of the cat's body. It's not a disease, nor a deformity.
And the bigger the auxiliary ear, the better a cat's hearing is, so it's okay to have four ears.
