Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Do Cats See Ghosts?

I can’t answer this question but if you visit any pet forum about cats there is always at least one thread devoted to the belief by cat owners that their pets can see ghosts. 

Actually, this is a wide-held belief because of a very specific phenomenon or behavior that people observe their cats doing. This behavior involves cats staring intently at something their owners can’t see.

Along with this staring, cat owners also observe their cats: avoiding certain parts of the house, becoming scared and hiding, their hair standing on end, as well as their cats going into defensive mode—crouching and hissing etc. 

This phenomenon is always described as not normal behavior for their cats. They have just moved to a new home and their cat has never behaved this way before. Or their cat was just fine and then all of sudden something happened and their cat is no longer comfortable in the home.

There are even discussions about the fact that the owners themselves have observed ghosts or felt cold spots. One thing that is never mentioned on these forums is the fact that cats see things in a different way than humans. 

Our eyes are similar but cats see things in the dark five times better than humans. The reason for this being they evolved as nocturnal hunters.

Specifically how their vision is different from ours is very interesting especially when the question is asked, “Do cats see ghosts?” 

This better night vision allows them to see light at eight times dimmer than humans and their eyes adjust faster to changing light than humans. When a cats pupil contracts unlike humans their eyes move into a slit that allows them to see things better in daylight as well. 

They also have better depth and peripheral vision that allows them to see even slight motion even from the corner of their eyes.

With all this ability they might just see ghosts.

Happy Ghost Hunting!

1 comment:

antleeli said...

Interesting post, yeah, some old Chinese people also believe this, but to me, no matter how, I love cat :)