It plays an important role in communication, social behavior, sexual activity and food appreciation.

By Karen Commings

When it comes to nosing around, a cat has a major paws up on its human caregiver. The furry feline that occupies your house has a whopping 60-to-80 million olfactory cells compared to a human’s five-to-20 million cells. Because of well-equipped noses, cats may use their sense of smell as the primary way of interacting with their environment. "They have a large olfactory area in the nose and do a lot of sniffing," says Katherine A. Houpt, VMD, PhD, the James Law Professor of Animal Behavior at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine. The sense of smell plays an important role in how cats communicate with each other, their social behavior,…

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