Those of us who share our lives with ARISTOPETS cannot help wondering what it would be like to be in their shoes. What they think, what they feel, how they interpret the reality around them, how they see us… We observe them a great deal, trying to imagine all this, but it is difficult. It is well known that animals' senses are more highly developed than ours.
In fact, those of the ARISTOCATS are light-years ahead. Felines' eyesight and sense of smell are 14 times better than ours. As for hearing, they are capable of hearing 2 octaves higher than we can. This means that their ability to receive sound is similar, but they can pick up sounds that are minimal and insignificant. Noises or sounds that we cannot hear no matter how hard we try, because our eardrums generally have a dynamic range of approximately 60 to 100 decibels in the 10 Hz to 10 kHz range.
Dynamic range is the difference in sound pressure level between the softest and loudest sounds that we can hear. For example, a soft sound would be the fluttering of a butterfly's wings. A loud one would be a gunshot. Normally, we are unable to detect the first, while we not only detect the second, but find it difficult to endure, and it may even damage the ear's protective mechanisms. Outside this frequency range, our hearing ability decreases rapidly. This does not happen to cats.
That is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to catch cats off guard. You can walk carefully, even on tiptoe, around the house; you can speak softly… they always sense you. Even before seeing or feeling you nearby, they know that you are there or that something is approaching. And they always anticipate what is going to happen. This distinctive feature of their hearing helps larger felines living in the wild to be excellent hunters. In the case of our ARISTOCATS, however, this aspect is usually rather irrelevant, because all their needs are met.
Well, as a result of this, researchers in Cleveland (Ohio, USA) are developing a device that will allow us to hear the way cats do. This device, they explain, is ten trillion times smaller than the human eardrum. In other words, it is made at the nanoscale. It is imperceptible. In fact, the device is shaped like a patch and consists of atomic layers of semiconductor crystals, so it is extremely thin. What is novel is that it can receive and transmit signals that only cats can detect.
Although this device is intended to become part of what scientists call “transducers” (devices capable of transforming or converting one form of incoming energy into another at the output), it is inevitable to imagine what would happen if it were brought to market. We could put them in our cats' ears. Understand them and always stay alert like they do. It would undoubtedly be quite an experience, allowing us to get to know them better and, by extension, take better care of them. However, it seems we will have to wait (hopefully not too long). Until then, we will keep you informed.
