Cats have shared life with humans for over 10,000 years. Today, the number of domestic cats in France alone is estimated at more than 15 million. And yet these little felines remain quite enigmatic to us.
It must be said that even though we share our daily lives with them, we don’t quite live in the same world. Quite simply because we do not perceive our surroundings in the same way as they do. The cat has senses much more developed than us. “He has a remarkable sense of smell. It is able to detect sounds much louder than humans, such as ultrasound emitted by rodents. Cats also have extremely developed tactile perception. Its epidermis reacts to the slightest touch. His mustache, the famous whiskers found on each side of the face, on the eyebrows, chin or legs. Thanks to its vibrissae, the cat perceives with great finesse the movements of the air. This allows him to detect the movements of others around him. And especially those that occur behind him, out of his field of vision.
The cat also has a very different vision than ours. “He sees poorly from near and far. He perceives colors worse than we do. He cannot distinguish between blue and red. On the other hand, he is able to see ultraviolet rays. He is also able to see in the dark thanks to a membrane located behind his retina that catches the light. »
With all these exceptional senses, cats have access to a reality that completely escapes us. Fortunately, this does not prevent us from living together and socializing with them.
According to Jessica Serra, domestic cats see their owners as a kind of surrogate mother. It doesn’t mean they see us as their peers. But during the domestication process, the cat has adopted the behavior of an eternal kitten towards us. In other words, in adulthood the domestic cat retains behavior that is observed in the young of the wild cat. For example, adult domestic cats meow to make themselves understood by humans, just as feral baby cats do to their mothers. And in turn, we quite easily adopt baby talk (this way of lengthening syllables and accentuating intonations) to address cats to get their attention.
Despite our very different perceptions of the world, we were able to find ways to engage in communication to create strong bonds of attachment.
Jessica Serra explains all this in a comic she co-signed with Lili Sohn entitled “in the head of a cat” which will be published in a few days by Humen science editions. This cartoon is inspired by a more complete essay previously published by the same publisher, also titled “Dans la tête d’un chat”
Jessica Serra will be Ali Rebeihi’s guest for you on Wednesday, January 25th. The show will be about cats.
