Cat Communication and Language

The eyes alone cannot convey a whole message and if the cat is blind, its permanently dilated pupils cannot convey a message at all. It is necessary to look at the rest of the cats face to piece together what it is saying. This sounds like a lot of work, but most humans read human expressions instinctively. If you can read human body language and facial expression, a little practice is all that is needed to learn the cat's facial language.

The Ears

Cats' ears are extremely mobile. With 20-30 muscles controlling them. They can swivel through 180 degrees and move up and down. They can be pricked forward or flattened sideways or backwards. The Scottish Fold cat, with its permanently folded ears, is at a slight disadvantage here. A cat can move its ears independently of each other. Not only do they pan around like radar dishes, scanning for any sound, the ears are important instruments of communication - they act like semaphores signals.

Some wild cats species have dark ears with white or pale markings on the back. The make the ear signals even more visible, especially at dusk and dawn when cats are most active. Ear tufts, such as seen in the lynx and caracal, also emphasize the movement and position of the ears and may help short-tailed species (e.g. lynx) compensate for their lack of tail. Note: in experiments with caracals, the ear tufts also help pick up sound vibrations, caracals whose ear tufts were trimmed off were less able to hunt small prey in long grass.

When content and relaxed, a cat sits with its ears facing forward but tilted slightly back. However, its ears demonstrate that the cat is alert even when it appears half asleep. If the cat's attention is caught by a noise or a movement, its pricks its ears more upright, maybe swiveling one or both to track the source of the noise.

If the cat grows anxious, its ears move slightly back and flatten down. An fearful cat has lowered ears. The more anxious or fearful the cat is, the flatter the ears until they are lying straight backwards, flat to the skull. If the cat is fearful but aggress, the ears flatten sideways - a combination of the forward pointing "alert" ears and the flattened/lowered "fearful" ears.

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