What’s Behind The Cheshire Cat Grin?
August 23, 2018
Dogs are famous for their keen sense of smell, but did you know a cat’s sense of smell is about 100 times better than a human’s?
The reason for this lies in the design of a cat’s nose. Those cute button noses house a labyrinth of bones that pick up scents spiraling them up the nose to a huge scent gland that sends messages to the brain about the outside world.
Perhaps the most interesting part of a cat’s acute sense of smell is the vomeronasal organ that sits right behind the incisors on either side of the face. Also known as Jacobson’s organ, it is a second sensory organ found in many animals that specifically picks up pheromone scents. From these chemicals, your cat can detect certain factors like the age, gender, and species.
You will have seen your cat using this scent-detection technique when they half open their mouths as if they’re grinning at you. But what they’re actually doing is engaging the Jacobson organ to detect other animal smells.
This action is called a cat’s Flehmen response and it’s a common gesture seen in all cats, including lions and tigers – the BIG cats! Just think back to any footage you’ve ever seen of lions in the Savannah and the familiar image of them grimacing and grinning like Cheshire cats. These cats are on the lookout through their keen sense of smell for predators and soon-to-be dinners.
When a cat breathes through her mouth, it stimulates the vomeronasal organ releasing saliva via two ducts either side of your cat’s face. Your cat will inhale the air, mouth agape, before sniffing the saliva back up the nasopalatine canals to detect pheromones. Your cat’s Jacobson organ contains 30 scent receptors, whereas a dog only has nine.
Cats are not alone in this trait. Goats, giraffes, horses, buffalos and llamas also possess this secondary sense of smell, and even humans are said to once have owned this auxiliary scent organ but it faded out with the evolution of the human species. Perhaps it’s just as well. Judging from all the stinky faces on the internet, I’m not sure that scope of smell would be pleasant. One ride on the subway would be pungent enough to knock you out!
So that explains why your cat sometimes gets that weird grin or #stinkyface sneer. Which begs the question: Was the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland really grinning at her to bemuse and confuse, or was he just an innocent bystander, hanging out in a tree enjoying the smells of the evening via the Flehmen response?
Photo by: Pascal Rey ~ _DSC6410_v1