• Question: How many muscels are in a cats ear?

    Asked by 485nveg29 to Marisol on 10 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Marisol Collins

      Marisol Collins answered on 10 Nov 2016:

      What a great question! There are an amazing 32 muscles around the base of a cat’s ear that control the movement of the ear. At any one time, the cat will use around 20 of these to rotate each ear around to follow where a noise might be coming from. They can move each ear around a full 180 degrees!
      Cats will move their ears not just to catch sound but to indicate behaviour too! If a cat has its ears flattened down against it’s head, it is either about to hunt you (if you are a mouse or a bird!) or to attack you (if you have made it angry!). How amazing is that?

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