• Question: How many bones do cats have in there ears? why?

    Asked by Lizzie.the.Otaku to Carolyn, Peter, Richard, Sara, Siana on 13 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Richard Unwin

      Richard Unwin answered on 13 Nov 2015:

      Hi Lizzie,

      Do you mean the outside bit that we can see, or the inner bit?

      The outside flap has no bones – it’s shape is held by a tough and bendy material called cartilage (the same as our ears and the end of out nose). Unlike human, each cat ear can move and is controlled by 32 different muscles!
      Inside the ear, cats, like humans, have three small bones – the smallest ones in the body. Sound travels as tiny vibrations in the air. these vibrate your eardrum, which in turn vibrates these bones, carrying the sounds we hear from the ear drum to the Cochlea – a snail-shaped structure which send the vibrations to our brain to work out what the noise is.

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