Ears are the hearing organs of animals. The ears of different species have different shapes. For example, elephants have a pair of big ears like a fan. In addition to allowing elephants to hear sounds, they can also help Like heat dissipation and repelling mosquitoes, the brown bear’s ears are much smaller than its body size, and its ability to capture sound is relatively poor, but it uses a sensitive nose (more sensitive than a dog’s sense of smell) to make up for it. at this point.
Generally speaking, the ears of animals of the same family are similar in length. For example, the ears of bears are relatively round and small, and the ears of canines are mostly vertical and pointed. However, cats are different. Large cats have rounder ears, while small cats have sharper ears. So, what caused the difference between animals of the same family? Let's discuss this issue together.
First, let’s take a look at the benefits of round ears and pointed ears
auditory range
In nature, different animals have different hearing ranges. For example, our human hearing range is between 20-20000 Hz, and the hearing range of elephants is between 1-20000 Hz. Generally, we call infrasound waves below the limit of human hearing (less than 20 Hz), and ultrasound waves (above 20,000 Hz) above the limit of human hearing. From an elephant’s hearing range, elephants can capture infrasound waves, but like humans, they cannot capture ultrasound. However, cats are different. Cats have a keen sense of hearing, and their hearing range is usually between 60-65000 Hz. That is to say, although cats cannot catch sounds with low vibration frequencies, they can Hear sounds of high vibration frequency, which is ultrasonic.
Many friends may be a bit vague about the concept of Hertz. Simply put, 1 Hertz means that the object vibrates once per second. The lower the vibration frequency, the less the object vibrates in one second, but the low frequency The sound has a smaller number of vibrations per second, and the transmitted sound has a longer wavelength and deeper, while high-frequency sounds have a shorter wavelength and a sharper sound due to more vibrations in one second.
Of course, if you are interested, you can search the Internet for 20-20000 Hz sound. Generally, after 15000 Hz, the sound will no longer be harsh, because the sound can be captured by human ears immediately The limit.
Round ears and pointed ears
Relatively speaking, the hearing range between animals of the same family is relatively close, that is, the limits of the sound that can be captured are similar. However, the scope of capturing external sounds is different. Because the ears of cats are upright and forward, the round ears have a strong ability to capture sound within 180° in the front, but the round ears also form a barrier to the sound behind. Filtering effect. Relatively speaking, pointed ears have a better ability to capture sound from the rear than round ears.
So, what caused the ear difference between small and large cats?
01 First is the living environment
Large cats, referred to as "big cats", refer to all cats in the leopard subfamily, such as lions and tigers , Leopard, Jaguar and so on. These large cats rarely overlap in their distribution. For example, tigers are unique to Asia, lions are mainly distributed in Africa, and jaguars are unique to America. That is to say, in the big cat family, only the leopards and ligers have overlapping distributions. Relatively speaking, they are the top existence of the food chain in their respective living spaces. In the wild, whether it is a lion, a tiger or a jaguar There are no natural enemies.
But small cats are different, such as lynx, lynx, these small cats, lynx is mainly distributed in Eurasia, North AmericaThe caracal cats are mainly distributed in Africa, Southwest Asia and other places. Judging from the distribution of the above two small cats, they overlap with the living environment of large cats, so they will face the threat of large cats. For example, the biggest natural enemy of the caracal cat in Africa is the leopard.
Therefore, the big cats at the top of the food chain usually don't have to be afraid of animals attacking from behind, while the small cats should always be alert to other animals' hunting. This is one of the reasons for the differences in their ears.
may be careful friends found that in the above animals, we have skipped the big cat leopard, the leopard also has a large overlap with the liger habitat, also Beware of the hunting of ligers. Therefore, leopards have sharp ears among large cats.
02 Differences in prey
The prey of large cats are mostly medium-sized or large herbivores, such as wild boars, bison, etc. They are large and easy to spot, so big cats usually don't use their ears to find prey, but their eyes.
However, small cats are different. The main prey of small cats are rodents and hares. These animals are difficult to observe in the grass and can only rely on their own auditory system.
And as we said above, the pointed ears are more conducive to the collection of surrounding sounds. This is also one of the reasons for the differentiation of large and small cat ears.
Summary
Even animals of the same family, their morphology is very different in different environments, such as whales The ancestors of the purpose were first mammals on land, but after a long underwater life, their morphology was very similar to fish. This is the reason for the convergent evolution.
And different cats have different niches in different environments, and they need to adapt to different environments. Therefore, there are certain differences, such as the lion's group living, the ears of big and small cats and so on.
