Cats: 160 interesting facts about them!

Cats are pretty awesome right? Let’s see some amazing facts about them!

1.Cats are similar in anatomy to the other felids, with a strong, flexible body, quick reflexes, sharp retractable claws, and teeth adapted to killing small prey.

2. Cat senses fit a crepuscular and predatory ecological niche.

3. Cats can hear sounds too faint or too high in frequency for human ears, such as those made by mice and other small animals.

4. A cat’s hearing is better than a dog’s. And a cat can hear high-frequency sounds up to two octaves higher than a human.

5. They can see in near darkness. Like most other mammals, cats have poorer color vision and a better sense of smell than humans.

6. Cats, despite being solitary hunters, are a social species and cat communication includes the use of a variety of vocalizations (mewing, purring, trilling, hissing, growling, and grunting), as well as cat pheromones and types of cat-specific body language.

7. Cats have been known to extirpate a bird species within specific regions and may have contributed to the extinction of isolated island populations.

8. Cats are thought to be primarily, though not solely, responsible for the extinction of 33 species of birds, and the presence of feral and free ranging cats makes some locations unsuitable for attempted species reintroduction in otherwise suitable locations.

9. Since cats were venerated in ancient Egypt, they were commonly believed to have been domesticated there, but there may have been instances of domestication as early as the Neolithic from around 9,500 years ago (7,500 BCE).

10. When a family cat died in ancient Egypt, family members would mourn by shaving off their eyebrows. They also held elaborate funerals during which they drank wine and beat their breasts. The cat was embalmed with a sculpted wooden mask and the tiny mummy was placed in the family tomb or in a pet cemetery with tiny mummies of mice.

11. In 1888, more than 300,000 mummified cats were found an Egyptian cemetery. They were stripped of their wrappings and carted off to be used by farmers in England and the U.S. for fertilizer.

12. Smuggling a cat out of ancient Egypt was punishable by death. Phoenician traders eventually succeeded in smuggling felines, which they sold to rich people in Athens and other important cities.g

13. A genetic study in 2007 concluded that domestic cats are descended from Near Eastern wildcats, having diverged around 8,000 BCE in West Asia.

14. A 2016 study found that leopard cats were undergoing domestication independently in China around 5,500 BCE, though this line of partially domesticated cats leaves no trace in the domesticated populations of today.

15. As of a 2007 study, cats are the second most popular pet in the United States by number of pets owned, behind the first, which is freshwater fish.

16. There are cats who have survived falls from over 32 stories (320 meters) onto concrete.

17. Every year, nearly four million cats are eaten in Asia.

18. On average, cats spend 2/3 of every day sleeping. That means a nine-year-old cat has been awake for only three years of its life.

19. Unlike dogs, cats do not have a sweet tooth. Scientists believe this is due to a mutation in a key taste receptor.

20. When a cat chases its prey, it keeps its head level. Dogs and humans bob their heads up and down.

21. Female cats tend to be right pawed, while male cats are more often left pawed. Interestingly, while 90% of humans are right handed, the remaining 10% of lefties also tend to be male.

22. A cat cannot climb head first down a tree because its claws are curved the wrong way.

23. Cats make about 100 different sounds. Dogs make only about 10.

24. A group of cats is called a clowder.

25. Cats have over 20 muscles that control their ears.

26. Cats sleep 70% of their lives.

27. A cat has been mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska, for 15 years. His name is Stubbs.

28. And one ran for mayor of Mexico City in 2013.

29. A cat’s brain is biologically more similar to a human brain than it is to a dog’s. Both humans and cats have identical regions in their brains that are responsible for emotions.

30. There are more than 500 million domestic cats in the world, with approximately 40 recognized breeds.

31. While it is commonly thought that the ancient Egyptians were the first to domesticate cats, the oldest known pet cat was recently found in a 9,500-year-old grave on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. This grave predates early Egyptian art depicting cats by 4,000 years or more.

32. During the time of the Spanish Inquisition, Pope Innocent VIII condemned cats as evil and thousands of cats were burned. Unfortunately, the widespread killing of cats led to an explosion of the rat population, which exacerbated the effects of the Black Death.

33. During the Middle Ages, cats were associated with withcraft, and on St. John’s Day, people all over Europe would stuff them into sacks and toss the cats into bonfires. On holy days, people celebrated by tossing cats from church towers.

34. Many Egyptians worshipped the goddess Bast, who had a woman’s body and a cat’s head.

35. Prophet Muhammad loved cats and reportedly his favorite cat, Muezza, was a tabby. Legend says that tabby cats have an “M” for Muhammad on top of their heads because Prophet Muhammad would often rest his hand on the cat’s head.

36. The biggest wildcat today is the Siberian Tiger. It can be more than 12 feet (3.6 m) long (about the size of a small car) and weigh up to 700 pounds (317 kg).

37. The smallest wildcat today is the Black-footed cat. The females are less than 20 inches (50 cm) long and can weigh as little as 2.5 lbs (1.2 kg)

38. The earliest ancestor of the modern cat lived about 30 million years ago. Scientists called it the Proailurus, which means “first cat” in Greek. The group of animals that pet cats belong to emerged around 12 million years ago.

39. According to Hebrew legend, Noah prayed to God for help protecting all the food he stored on the ark from being eaten by rats. In reply, God made the lion sneeze, and out popped a cat.

40. The first cat in space was a French cat named Felicette (a.k.a. “Astrocat”) In 1963, France blasted the cat into outer space. Electrodes implanted in her brains sent neurological signals back to Earth. She survived the trip.

41. Researchers believe the word “tabby” comes from Attabiyah, a neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq. Tabbies got their name because their striped coats resembled the famous wavy patterns in the silk produced in this city.

42. Cats are North America’s most popular pets: there are 73 million cats compared to 63 million dogs. Over 30% of households in North America own a cat.

43. Cats can’t taste sweetness.

44. Owning a cat can reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack by a third.

45. The group of words associated with cat (catt, cath, chat, katze) stem from the Latincatus, meaning domestic cat, as opposed to feles, or wild cat.

46. The term “puss” is the root of the principal word for “cat” in the Romanian term pisicaand the root of secondary words in Lithuanian (puz) and Low German puus. Some scholars suggest that “puss” could be imitative of the hissing sound used to get a cat’s attention. As a slang word for the female pudenda, it could be associated with the connotation of a cat being soft, warm, and fuzzy.

47. Approximately 40,000 people are bitten by cats in the U.S. annually.

48. A cat can travel at a top speed of approximately 31 mph (49 km) over a short distance.

49. A cat can jump up to five times its own height in a single bound.

50. Some cats have survived falls of over 65 feet (20 meters), due largely to their “righting reflex.” The eyes and balance organs in the inner ear tell it where it is in space so the cat can land on its feet. Even cats without a tail have this ability.

51. A cat rubs against people not only to be affectionate but also to mark out its territory with scent glands around its face. The tail area and paws also carry the cat’s scent.

52. Your cat recognizes your voice but just acts too cool to care (probably because they are).

53. Cats and humans have nearly identical sections of the brain that control emotion.

54. Basically, cats have a lower social IQ than dogs but can solve more difficult cognitive problems when they feel like it.

55. A cat’s cerebral cortex (the part of the brain in charge of cognitive information processing) has 300 million neurons, compared with a dog’s 160 million.

56. Researchers are unsure exactly how a cat purrs. Most veterinarians believe that a cat purrs by vibrating vocal folds deep in the throat. To do this, a muscle in the larynx opens and closes the air passage about 25 times per second.

57. Most cats give birth to a litter of between one and nine kittens. The largest known litter ever produced was 19 kittens, of which 15 survived.

58. While many parts of Europe and North America consider the black cat a sign of bad luck, in Britain and Australia, black cats are considered lucky.

59. A cat has five toes on his front paws, and four on the back, unless he’s a polydactyl.

60. Polydactyl cats are also referred to as “Hemingway cats” because the author was so fond of them.

61. There are 45 Hemingway cats living at the author’s former home in Key West, Fla.

62. The most popular pedigreed cat is the Persian cat, followed by the Main Coon cat and the Siamese cat.

63. The smallest pedigreed cat is a Singapura, which can weigh just 4 lbs (1.8 kg), or about five large cans of cat food. The largest pedigreed cats are Maine Coon cats, which can weigh 25 lbs (11.3 kg), or nearly twice as much as an average cat weighs.

64. Some Siamese cats appear cross-eyed because the nerves from the left side of the brain go to mostly the right eye and the nerves from the right side of the brain go mostly to the left eye. This causes some double vision, which the cat tries to correct by “crossing” its eyes.

65. Cats have a longer-term memory than dogs, especially when they learn by actually doing rather than simply seeing.

66. Cats have 1,000 times more data storage than an iPad.

67. Cats hate the water because their fur does not insulate well when it’s wet. The Turkish Van, however, is one cat that likes swimming. Bred in central Asia, its coat has a unique texture that makes it water resistant.

68. The Egyptian Mau is probably the oldest breed of cat. In fact, the breed is so ancient that its name is the Egyptian word for “cat.

69. The first commercially cloned pet was a cat named “Little Nicky.” He cost his owner $50,000, making him one of the most expensive cats ever.

70. A cat usually has about 12 whiskers on each side of its face.

71. Abraham Lincoln kept four cats in the White House.

72. When asked if her husband had any hobbies, Mary Todd Lincoln is said to have replied “cats.”

73. Original kitty litter was made out of sand but it was replaced by more absorbent clay in 1948.

74. Spanish-Jewish folklore recounts that Adam’s first wife, Lilith, became a black vampire cat, sucking the blood from sleeping babies. This may be the root of the superstition that a cat will smother a sleeping baby or suck out the child’s breath.

75. Perhaps the most famous comic cat is the Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. With the ability to disappear, this mysterious character embodies the magic and sorcery historically associated with cats.

76. In the original Italian version of Cinderella, the benevolent fairy godmother figure was a cat.

77. Two Siamese cats discovered microphones hidden by Russian spies in Holland’s embassy in Moscow.

78. In Holland’s embassy in Moscow, Russia, the staff noticed that the two Siamese cats kept meowing and clawing at the walls of the building. Their owners finally investigated, thinking they would find mice. Instead, they discovered microphones hidden by Russian spies. The cats heard the microphones when they turned on.

79. The English word ‘cat’ (Old English catt) is in origin a loanword, introduced to many languages of Europe from Latin cattus and Byzantine Greek κάττα, including Portuguese and Spanish gato, French chat, German Katze, Lithuanian katė, and Old Church Slavonic kotka, among others. The ultimate source of the word is Afroasiatic, presumably from Late Egyptian čaute, the feminine of čaus “wildcat”

80. A house cat is faster than Usain Bolt.

81. When cats leave their poop uncovered, it is a sign of aggression to let you know they don’t fear you.

82. Cats can change their meow to manipulate a human. They often imitate a human baby when they need food, for example.

83. The little tufts of hair in a cat’s ear that help keep out dirt direct sounds into the ear, and insulate the ears are called “ear furnishings.

84. Cats use their whiskers to detect if they can fit through a space.

85. Cats have free-floating clavicle bones that attach their shoulders to their forelimbs, which allows them to squeeze through very small spaces.

86. The ability of a cat to find its way home is called “psi-traveling.” Experts think cats either use the angle of the sunlight to find their way or that cats have magnetized cells in their brains that act as compasses.

87. Isaac Newton invented the cat flap. Newton was experimenting in a pitch-black room. Spithead, one of his cats, kept opening the door and wrecking his experiment. The cat flap kept both Newton and Spithead happy.

88. The world’s rarest coffee, Kopi Luwak, comes from Indonesia where a wildcat known as the luwak lives. The cat eats coffee berries and the coffee beans inside pass through the stomach. The beans are harvested from the cat’s dung heaps and then cleaned and roasted. Kopi Luwak sells for about $500 for a 450 g (1 lb) bag.

89. A cat’s jaw can’t move sideways, so a cat can’t chew large chunks of food.

90. A cat almost never meows at another cat, mostly just humans. Cats typically will spit, purr, and hiss at other cats.

91. A cat’s back is extremely flexible because it has up to 53 loosely fitting vertebrae. Humans only have 34.

92. Cats lick themselves to get your scent off.

93. Cats do eat grass occasionally. A proposed explanation is that cats use grass as a source of folic acid. Another proposed explanation is that it is used to supply dietary fiber.

94. Only 11.5% of people consider themselves “cat people.”

95. Cat people are also 11% more likely to be introverted.

96. Still, cat people are more open to new experiences than typical “dog people.”

97. Cat owners who are male tend to be luckier in love, as they are perceived as more sensitive.

98. Cat owners are 17% more likely to have a graduate degree.

99. Cat people are 25% likely to pick George as their favorite Beatle.

100. A cat’s carbon footprint is similar to that of a VW Bug, whereas a dog’s is more like a Hummer.

101. Approximately 1/3 of cat owners think their pets are able to read their minds.

102. All cats have claws, and all except the cheetah sheath them when at rest.

1o3. Two members of the cat family are distinct from all others: the clouded leopard and the cheetah. The clouded leopard does not roar like other big cats, nor does it groom or rest like small cats. The cheetah is unique because it is a running cat; all others are leaping cats. They are leaping cats because they slowly stalk their prey and then leap on it.a

104. A cat lover is called an Ailurophilia (Greek: cat+lover)

105. Cats can drink seawater.

106. In Japan, cats are thought to have the power to turn into super spirits when they die. This may be because according to the Buddhist religion, the body of the cat is the temporary resting place of very spiritual people.

107. Most cats had short hair until about 100 years ago, when it became fashionable to own cats and experiment with breeding.

108. Cats have 32 muscles that control the outer ear (humans have only 6). A cat can independently rotate its ears 180 degrees.

109. Cats can hear dolphins. Theoretically.

110. During the nearly 18 hours a day that kittens sleep, an important growth hormone is released.

111. Kittens start to dream when they’re about a week old.

112. In fact, cats sleep so much that, by the time a cat is 9 years old, it will only have been awake for three years of its life.

113. Cats have about 130,000 hairs per square inch (20,155 hairs per square centimeter).

114. The heaviest cat on record is Himmy, a Tabby from Queensland, Australia. He weighed nearly 47 pounds (21 kg). He died at the age of 10.

115. The oldest cat on record was Crème Puff from Austin, Texas, who lived from 1967 to August 6, 2005, three days after her 38th birthday. A cat typically can live up to 20 years, which is equivalent to about 96 human years.

116. The lightest cat on record is a blue point Himalayan called Tinker Toy, who weighed 1 pound, 6 ounces (616 g). Tinker Toy was 2.75 inches (7 cm) tall and 7.5 inches (19 cm) long.

117. The tiniest cat on record is Mr. Pebbles, a 2-year-old cat that weighed 3 lbs (1.3 k) and was 6.1 inches (15.5 cm) high.

118. A commemorative tower was built in Scotland for a cat named Towser, who caught nearly 30,000 mice in her lifetime.

119. In the 1750s, Europeans introduced cats into the Americas to control pests.

120. Cats have a third eyelid called a “haw”. It’s generally only visible when they’re unwell.

121. Cats’ homing instinct may be due to magnets in their brains.

122. The first cat show was organized in 1871 in London. Cat shows later became a worldwide craze.

123. The first cartoon cat was Felix the Cat in 1919.

124. In 1940, Tom and Jerry starred in the first theatrical cartoon “Puss Gets the Boot.”

125. In 1981 Andrew Lloyd Weber created the musical Cats, based on T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.

126. The normal body temperature of a cat is between 100.5 ° and 102.5 °F. A cat is sick if its temperature goes below 100 ° or above 103 °F.

127. A cat has 230 bones in its body. A human has 206. A cat has no collarbone, so it can fit through any opening the size of its head.

128. A cat’s nose pad is ridged with a unique pattern, just like the fingerprint of a human.

129. Nikola Tesla was inspired to investigate electricity after his cat, Macak, gave him a static shock.

130. If they have ample water, cats can tolerate temperatures up to 133 °F.

131. Foods that should not be given to cats include onions, garlic, green tomatoes, raw potatoes, chocolate, grapes, and raisins.

132. Though milk is not toxic, it can cause an upset stomach and gas.

133. Tylenol and aspirin are extremely toxic to cats, as are many common houseplants.

134. Feeding cats dog food or canned tuna that’s for human consumption can cause malnutrition.

135. A 2007 Gallup poll revealed that both men and women were equally likely to own a cat.

136. Cats may have evolved their “tone of voice” to communicate with humans.

137. Cats’ natural vocal range would be inaudible to humans, but they communicate feelings such as affection, hunger, and fear within the range.

138. A cat’s heart beats nearly twice as fast as a human heart, at 110 to 140 beats a minute.

139. Cats don’t have sweat glands over their bodies like humans do. Instead, they sweat only through their paws.

140. In just seven years, a single pair of cats and their offspring could produce a staggering total of 420,000 kittens.

141. Relative to its body size, the clouded leopard has the biggest canines of all animals’ canines. Its dagger-like teeth can be as long as 1.8 inches (4.5 cm).

142. Cats spend nearly 1/3 of their waking hours cleaning themselves.

143. Cats purr at the same frequency as an idling diesel engine (26 purrs per second).

144. Grown cats have 30 teeth. Kittens have about 26 temporary teeth, which they lose when they are about 6 months old.

145. A cat called Dusty has the known record for the most kittens. She had more than 420 kittens in her lifetime.

146. The largest cat breed is the Ragdoll. Male Ragdolls weigh between 12 and 20 lbs (5.4-9.0 k). Females weigh between 10 and 15 lbs (4.5-6.8 k).

147. The more you talk to your cat, the more it will talk to you.

148. Cats are extremely sensitive to vibrations. Cats are said to detect earthquake tremors 10 or 15 minutes before humans can.

149. In contrast to dogs, cats have not undergone major changes during their domestication process.

150. In the 1930s, two Russian biologists discovered that color change in Siamese kittens depend on their body temperature. Siamese cats carry albino genes that work only when the body temperature is above 98° F. If these kittens are left in a very warm room, their points won’t darken and they will stay a creamy white.

151. There are up to 60 million feral cats in the United States alone.

152. The oldest cat to give birth was Kitty who, at the age of 30, gave birth to two kittens. During her life, she gave birth to 218 kittens

153. The most traveled cat is Hamlet, who escaped from his carrier while on a flight. He hid for seven weeks behind a pane. By the time he was discovered, he had traveled nearly 373,000 miles (600,000 km).

154. The most expensive cat was an Asian Leopard cat (ALC)-Domestic Shorthair (DSH) hybrid named Zeus. Zeus, who is 90% ALC and 10% DSH, has an asking price of £100,000 ($154,000).

155. The cat who holds the record for the longest non-fatal fall is Andy. He fell from the 16th floor of an apartment building (about 200 ft/.06 km) and survived.

156. The richest cat is Blackie who was left £15 million by his owner, Ben Rea.

157. Cats aren’t the only animals that purr —squirrels, lemurs, elephants, and even gorillas purr too.

158. The claws on the cat’s back paws aren’t as sharp as the claws on the front paws because the claws in the back don’t retract and, consequently, become worn.

159. If your cat’s tail is vibrating, it’s excited to see you.

160. By neutering a cat, you add about two to three years to its life.