It is a well-known trivia that some cats can and will always be able to find their way to their homes no matter how far they get lost and this is the reason why many people do not consider buying a cat GPS tracker. It is baffling for most of us but there must be some kind of an explanation or a study for this type of phenomenon out there.
Many types of animals can also do such feats; some animals, such as the seabirds, navigate through the use of the sun or stars; it is said that so long as one of which is visible they will be able to make a beeline back to their home. However, other animals navigate through the use of our very own Earth’s magnetic field. Some types of animals such as sea turtles use the Earth’s magnetic field to find their way through the vast space of the ocean.
Magnetoreception or magnetoception is a sense that allows animals to be able to detect the Earth’s magnetic field in order to perceive direction, location, or altitude. Scientists were able to observe this type of behavior in many types of organisms such as stingrays, birds, dolphins, whales, and even algae and bacteria. However, studying this behavior is quite difficult and, therefore, there isn’t any good evidence yet that cats have the ability to detect the Earth’s electromagnetic waves, especially those that are below the frequency of microwaves.
There are some theories, however, on how cats are able to find their way home: one of which is that because they are only half-domesticated animals, they are gifted with a great sense of direction but how this happens remains unseen. Some say that the presence of iron in the inner ears and skin of mammals may contribute to their ability of having a natural compass.
Cats are not only gifted animals with a powerful sense of sight and smell but they can also perceive the world through their paws and fur, and these are all responsible for gathering and sensing all the information around them, and rapidly passing it onto their brains for processing.
With all this, we can say that we are yet to fully determine if cats can sense and use the Earth’s magnetic field to find out how they are able to navigate their way back home.
