Can Cats Recognize Faces?
When I looked up into the window while walking past our apartment the other day, I saw one of my cats looking down at me and wondered if she can
recognize my face, or if she only recognizes me by smell. Do my cats know my face, or only my smell?
Rhonda
Vinsebeck, Nrw, Germany
Although I’m not aware of any scientific study that conclusively proves it, I am confident that both cats and dogs can recognize humans by sight.
This assessment is based upon my own experiences. Both cats and dogs have appeared to recognize me through glass doors or windows. And, although I can’t prove that they recognized me by sight rather than by smell, it certainly seemed like they did.
Personal experience is a notoriously inaccurate way to prove the answer to a question like this one, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that yes, cats can recognize faces.
You have questions. 
Certainly they do!! I have had a friend’s cat, Miss Hiss, follow me from window to window as I walked around their house on the outside looking at their flower beds. Miss Hiss was a rescued cat and she and my friends hit it right off so I let them adopt her. She is very antisocial with other cats but takes well to humans and being spoiled rotten!
of course they do!!! in my neighborhood , there a 2 ferals that I feed , they are like my adopted outdoor pets. one of them , tigger , I’ve known her since she was a tiny kitten. And she recognizes me easily , even from the living room window on the third flor , when I am looking down at her , too far away for her to smell me. however , she does do it mostly by sound too ,cause when she sees me she’ll look at me and meow uncertainly as though not sure if it really is me , but as soon as I call her in the special singsongy voice I use with her , she is sure and runs right over.
You have to keep in mind that cat eyes are not like human eyes. As you probably remember from bio class, we have both rods and cones in our eyes–the cones picking up color and being concentrated in the fovea (the super high density area in the middle of our eyes). The outsides of our eyes are dominated by rods, which are used heavily in nigh-vision and motion detection.
Cat eyes are almost exclusively filled with rods–moreover, they have no fovea. They have amazing night vision and movement detection, but are actually not very good at picking out detail (or color) from the ranges where human beings can do so easily. But they do have incredibly sensitive ears and noses… that’s why a cat will recognize your smell, but why a lot of cats will offer a tentative but hesitant meow if they see you at a distance and can’t smell you.
oh, I forgot to mention in the past comment that it’s the concentration of cones in the fovea (combined with very small receptive areas) that gives us our good detail perception. That’s why cats lacking a fovea (with accompanying cones) is important when I say that they don’t have very detailed vision or almost any color detection.
No, cats aren’t good at face recognition. As Aaron described it, cat eyes are structured differently. They weren’t meant for face recognition, as cats by nature are loners and communicate with each other over great distances via scent messages left on trees and rocks. Their eyes are geared towards hunting in the dark.
As far as everyday observation goes, I disagree that a cat following you from window to window is evidence enough for face recognition. Cats follow squirrels, other cats, and pretty much any moving object from window to window. When you eliminate scent and sound cues, and the cat comes to you or does whatever it usually does to greet you, then that might be proof (although still, that could just be a friendly cat which greets everybody). Here are a couple of observations in support of cats NOT being good at face recognition:
When I was younger I spent a long time with my grandparents, who had two outdoor cats. The cats knew me well and trusted me. However, when I was too far for them to smell me, and I approached quietly, they got scared and looked uncertain, ready to run just in case. Sometimes I said nothing and kept advancing, which sent them off running. Other times I spoke, and they immediately recognized me and came over, purring. I noticed that they were a lot less suspicious within the bounds of our property, although they’d still run if there was no scent or sound cue. Out on the street, however, they’d run immediately, not even giving me a chance to speak (that’s because the kids in the village harassed the outdoor cats, so the cats were suspicious of everybody). It seems that all our cats knew from visual cues alone was that people seen inside the yard were more likely to be one of us than not (sometimes we had guests, though, so not everybody seen inside was guaranteed safe). They still needed a sound or smell to identify even the people who raised them.
Another example is our current, indoor cat. She lives with just me and my fiance, and adores us. However, she used to have a really hard time identifying us when we came in wearing heavy winter clothes, hats and scarves. One time she got so scared that she hissed and ran away from me, even though my face was clearly visible (and she never runs from me otherwise). The moment I called her, though, she calmed down and came to greet me as usual – even though I was still wearing the winter clothes! Now she doesn’t run, but she still either hides under the table and waits for us to speak, or meows inquiringly until we speak.
P.S. That is not to say that cats don’t *know* us, or that they are any less of a companion and friend. They just have a different way of knowing and recognizing us. Just like we aren’t good at recognizing them by their smell. Which they’d probably think is equally disappointing… :-P
There is one aspect of recognition, actually, that no one touched on. Have you ever recognized someone from across the street, at the end of a long hallway, at the other end of a ball field, etc.? Well, in case you don’t remember, let me remind you. From such a distance, chances are, you could NOT see their face …or, at least, not in detail. You recognized them by the way they swung their arms, held their shoulders, tilted their head, turned their feet outward, or some other mannerism, carriage or combination thereof. This can be seen to some degree from quite some distance, that means, without the aid of fine visual detail. I do agree that most of how cats recognize us is by smell and sound, but if they can read each others body language, they can also read yours. I’ve noticed while I mask my carriage and body language and come at my cat from a place they didn’t know I would come from, they didn’t know me. However, I’m an explorer who likes to come at things from all directions, so I’ve actually tried this …and on all my cats. When, without speaking and still farther than they can smell me from or from the other side of a window and at a distance, I throw in some gesture or mannerism that is unmistakably mine, they instantly recognize me.
As to their eye for detail, it is true it doesn’t match ours, not by a long shot. For instance, a sheet of white paper with writing from top to bottom looks, to them like a square that is white around the borders (margins) and gray everywhere else (the print). They can’t make out the characters, letters or words. Their eyes can’t see that fine a detail. However, they speak to each other with eye blinks. A long slow one means acceptance, affection or submission, depending on the circumstances behind the message. Cats would have to be able to see facial detail well enough for that, at least, or it would not be a part of their body language repertoire. Also, pupil size and shape, whisker positioning, curled lip, ear position and the position of the eye lids are parts of that repertoire. Whether they recognize us by our facial features or just recognize our mood, who knows? Still, if they don’t recognize our face by its features, it would have to be attributed to how their brain works in the translation, not whether they can see facial features. Obviously, they can see facial features because communication between them depends upon it.
Lin,
I think you missed the point of the article and the responses given. Let me remind you that the question was not, “Can cats recognize people?”. To such a question, one would undoubtedly mention things like body language and movement. I certainly knew of such things (I assume Didi did too) when I was writing my response. I even hinted at it when I mentioned I said that they have much better movement detection than we do.
However, the question as stated was “Can cats recognize faces?”. As such, in attempting to help answering the posed question, I brought up fine detail discrimination in cats and how it’s significantly worse than human beings–in other words, they’ll probably use other senses (and things like movement, scent, voice, etc) to recognize you at distances where we’d use a person’s face. And a lot of that fine communication between cats that you mention, the stuff that depends upon some facial clues, happens in fairly close quarters.
But are they capable of recognizing your face? Possibly. My cat spends a lot of time in my lap staring at my face from close up. But possibly not. Most chimps look alike to me, as do most chickens. Recognizing a person’s face involves more than recognizing that you are, in fact, looking at a face (a distinction you seem to blur in your last paragraph). We, as highly social animals with comparatively good resolution in our eyesight, put a lot of effort into recognizing faces whereas cats don’t necessarily need to. Even given the difference in sensory ability, it’s not purely a question of ability as much as need. If they are unable to make out significant details of your face until you are too close for it to matter to them, they’ll likely rely on their other, more acute senses to identify individuals… hence why cats communicate heavily with scent, vocalizations, and body language. And if they can identify you already without having to recognize your face, why should they? Again I’ll state that they might very well recognize your face–none of us know the answer to that question with 100% certainty–but it seems likely that they probably don’t need to.
Aaron,
The question was “Can cats recognize faces?”, and where, exactly, did you respond with a simple, “yes, they do” or “no, they don’t”? Maybe YOU missed the point. Or maybe the answer isn’t as simple as yes or no, and you feel that only YOU have the right to elaborate on points not brought up in the question nor by other posts.
However, since you took issue with me, you opened the can, so let me point out a couple of things YOU missed. A cat’s movement detection is geared at hearing a sound, then using their visual acuity in conjunction with their hearing to pin-point from where that sound was made. That has nothing to do with reading body language, so NO, you did NOT hint at that point.
As to cats communicating in close quarters, since YOU brought it up, cats are not neither far-sighted nor near-sighted, they just don’t have broad range focus or an eye for fine detail. Range of focus being inhibited is not the same as being near-sighted. As to the fine detail cats miss, I simply pointed out, does not include facial features. I have watched my cats exchange communications just using change in facial features from both near and far, with one another and with strange interlopers, and such exchanges are CLEARLY understood even from a distance. Granted it isn’t a great distance, but few animals, INCLUDING humans distinguish facial features from a great distance.
Nothing I said was untrue, so your attack upon me obviously has more to do with your ego and less to do with my facts. I quoted nothing from your post, neither did I mention your name. If you felt an attack on your ego, that has nothing to do with me. That was your choice, and …good luck with that!
1. AARON posted a comment on March 16th, 2009 at 9:51 am
LIN,
I THINK YOU MISSED THE POINT OF THE ARTICLE AND THE RESPONSES GIVEN. LET ME REMIND YOU THAT THE QUESTION WAS NOT, “CAN CATS RECOGNIZE PEOPLE?”. TO SUCH A QUESTION, ONE WOULD UNDOUBTEDLY MENTION THINGS LIKE BODY LANGUAGE AND MOVEMENT. I CERTAINLY KNEW OF SUCH THINGS (I ASSUME DIDI DID TOO) WHEN I WAS WRITING MY RESPONSE. I EVEN HINTED AT IT WHEN I MENTIONED I SAID THAT THEY HAVE MUCH BETTER MOVEMENT DETECTION THAN WE DO.
HOWEVER, THE QUESTION AS STATED WAS “CAN CATS RECOGNIZE FACES?”. AS SUCH, IN ATTEMPTING TO HELP ANSWERING THE POSED QUESTION, I BROUGHT UP FINE DETAIL DISCRIMINATION IN CATS AND HOW IT’S SIGNIFICANTLY WORSE THAN HUMAN BEINGS–IN OTHER WORDS, THEY’LL PROBABLY USE OTHER SENSES (AND THINGS LIKE MOVEMENT, SCENT, VOICE, ETC) TO RECOGNIZE YOU AT DISTANCES WHERE WE’D USE A PERSON’S FACE. AND A LOT OF THAT FINE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN CATS THAT YOU MENTION, THE STUFF THAT DEPENDS UPON SOME FACIAL CLUES, HAPPENS IN FAIRLY CLOSE QUARTERS.
BUT ARE THEY CAPABLE OF RECOGNIZING YOUR FACE? POSSIBLY. MY CAT SPENDS A LOT OF TIME IN MY LAP STARING AT MY FACE FROM CLOSE UP. BUT POSSIBLY NOT. MOST CHIMPS LOOK ALIKE TO ME, AS DO MOST CHICKENS. RECOGNIZING A PERSON’S FACE INVOLVES MORE THAN RECOGNIZING THAT YOU ARE, IN FACT, LOOKING AT A FACE (A DISTINCTION YOU SEEM TO BLUR IN YOUR LAST PARAGRAPH). WE, AS HIGHLY SOCIAL ANIMALS WITH COMPARATIVELY GOOD RESOLUTION IN OUR EYESIGHT, PUT A LOT OF EFFORT INTO RECOGNIZING FACES WHEREAS CATS DON’T NECESSARILY NEED TO. EVEN GIVEN THE DIFFERENCE IN SENSORY ABILITY, IT’S NOT PURELY A QUESTION OF ABILITY AS MUCH AS NEED. IF THEY ARE UNABLE TO MAKE OUT SIGNIFICANT DETAILS OF YOUR FACE UNTIL YOU ARE TOO CLOSE FOR IT TO MATTER TO THEM, THEY’LL LIKELY RELY ON THEIR OTHER, MORE ACUTE SENSES TO IDENTIFY INDIVIDUALS… HENCE WHY CATS COMMUNICATE HEAVILY WITH SCENT, VOCALIZATIONS, AND BODY LANGUAGE. AND IF THEY CAN IDENTIFY YOU ALREADY WITHOUT HAVING TO RECOGNIZE YOUR FACE, WHY SHOULD THEY? AGAIN I’LL STATE THAT THEY MIGHT VERY WELL RECOGNIZE YOUR FACE–NONE OF US KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION WITH 100% CERTAINTY–BUT IT SEEMS LIKELY THAT THEY PROBABLY DON’T NEED TO.
PS – I did not mean to do all caps, I was trying to make a few words bold and for some reason it came out like this.
Actually I don’t know what the computer did. Clearly, I’m not a great efficionado with computers. It somehow repeated Aaron’s response to me and tacked it on to the end of mine. I don’t know what that was!
Defeat is bitter, Lin. Your anger is understandable, if not a bit hilarious :-P
Lin,
This is my last response. I’m not going to do a back and forth with you any further than this, regardless of how many caps you use or how many cans you choose to open and close all on your own.
Trust me when I say that you need not lecture me on how a cat’s eye or brain works. I know perfctly well. Their visual tract is dominated by rods with relatively large receptive areas, which is an amazingly good setup for detecting motion and any sort of low-light information. The outsides of our eyes are kind of like this too, why we can see better at night when we don’t look direclty at the thing we’re trying to see. But this is horrible for fine detail resolution or color detection–our rod-rich fovea gives us this ability, which is also why our night vision is comparatively bad when we look right at an object. That’s why is said that their detail resolution is bad, but they can pick up movements at a distance much better. They’re nocturnal hunters by nature, so this is exactly what one would expect. And by pointing out their ability to see movement better, what I was hinting at is that they’re better able to read things like motion of a body at a distance and not necessarily the details of an area as tiny as a face. In other words, we’re really asking the wrong question by focusing on faces. Sorry if I needed to be more explicit for you.
As for staying on point, I commented on that because you seemed to want to “remind” the other posters that there is more to recognizing someone than recognizing their face. This is true, and also completely irrelevant. Also, I did not give a yes or no answer to the question because I’m capable of recognizing that there is no simple yes or no answer. The best anyone can give is that your cat might be capable of recognize your face if you’re close up, but is very unlikely to recognize you using your face at any appreciable distance. Face recognition just isn’t the end all, be all of identification. I commented on the biology at work–relevant information for those who might not know the bio or neuroscience behind a cat’s sense of vision. If they assume that a cat is capable of sight just like ours, then they’ll think that the question is synomymoous with “Can my cat remember my face?” when it’s really more akin to “Is my cat capable of perceiving enough detail to recognize my face at the necessary distances to choose how to respond before it’s too late?”. Do you see the distinction? Or are you still too worried about that can of yours?
I also didn’t say that cats are near-sighted, which is just a problem with the shape of one’s eye. It doesn’t take being nearsighted to recognize details better–regardless of the size of your receptive fields, a closer object simply covers more of them. I’ll leave that paragraph alone, as I don’t know where you got that straw man from.
Regardless, my last post was simply continuing a somewhat interesting discussion, adding to the commentary. If you took such great offense, I’m afraid that you’re the one with too sensitive an ego. I used no caps, or any accusations. If you’re going to read and post on the internet, you really need to develop a thicker skin.
Or simply get a can with a better lid.
OMC , this seems to have almost evolved into an argument!!!! all over wether cats can recognize faces or not!!!!! yeesh, calm down , ppl!
They certainly do…When i come home and my cat is sitting by the window, she will start to stand up and look at me and meow and brushes her face against the screen…If my dog Shumai & Kiwi are the ones at the wqindow they recognize me from afar…i am still walking on our lane to my house and they will start wagging gtheir tails…Isn’t this so cute that reecognize their mama…they probably can smell or recognize my face or both…
I most certainly believe they recognize faces. One of my cats is a former stray that was living in my apartment complex. When she was still outside, I’d come down early before going to work and just sit with her. She was always waiting for me next to the maintenance man’s office. When I would come into view, I’d see her looking in my direction and meow and start coming toward me. I know she knew who I was because the maintenance man would tell me she’d be sitting there for a while, and other people would just pass by and she’d either hide from them or move away. So that tells me she was actually looking out for me.
So that answer to this question for me would be an absolute yes.
Absolutely yes. My cats will jump out of the window seat and hide when they see a person they do not recognize like the mail carrier passing by their favorite window. But when I get home from work they are often waiting for me in the window and when they see it’s me they put their paws up to the glass. If I tap on the glass (without speaking) the little one tries to rub her face on my hand through it. They know that it’s their Momma and as I pass the window to go in the door, they all run to meet me there. They certainly can not smell me though the glass so clearly they recognize the difference between me and the mail carrier.
For what it’s worth I agree with Lin & the majority of others who have posted. It’s just my personal opinion that cats have several ways that they recognize us & other things. If they didn’t then they wouldn’t have survived for as long as they have on their own.
I too have had cats for nearly all my 34 years & just from personal experience I believe they use a combination of ways to recognize us. After all they are very intelligent animals.
I believe we are each entitled to our opinions, but lets not bring the fighting or ganging up, into it, it ruins an otherwise fun & interesting part of Dogster & Catster.
Yes I think cats can recogonize you by your face. My cat is usually a really big baby and I let it outside only when I’m home but it wants to go in and out like every 5 minutes and when its ready to come inside it stands by the glass door and looks at me until I open it than it will rub against my legs when I let it in, and my cat is scared of other people so I know it knows me by my face because if it was outside and ready to come in and someone else opened the door it would probably run away. Also when i get home from work it stands by the door in the corner and as soon as I open the door it peeks out from the corner and when it sees me it runs up to me right away.
My former cat used to know we were home, just by pulling our car into the parking lot of the apartment we lived in, which was on the 3rd floor & across from the garages. She also knew the sound of us walking down the hallway, as she would be sitting right by the door.
I also know that the squirrels did the same thing, because as soon as they saw our car pull in, they would rush up to our balcony to wait for peanuts.
Animals are incredibly so much smarter than we think, but I do believe they both know their owners by sight & be smell.
I totally believe that my cat recognizes me from my face, voice, touch and even my footsteps. She can distinctly make out that its me! Everyday I come home and park my car, you can hear her meow out for me from the window as soon as she sees me(though the window is closed and my apartment is on the third floor, there is no way she could smell me!! from that far way). She usually waits for me at the door and cannot wait to run into my arms for headbutts and ear skritches…If it were anyone else, she would run and hide.. she makes eye contact with me and I truly understands what I say. I have never intended to train her, but with only my eye movement she can understand what I want her to do.She is amazing… I call out to her, she immediately responds back to me from wherever she is. Sometimes I even wonder if we both share a telepathic connection. :-) We play hide and seek, peekaboo and i can see her react…:-) They are indeed very smart and we cant begin to understand how extremely intelligent they are!
Do cats recognize individual humans? YOU BET!!!!!
Does it have to do with thier faces?? WHO CARES???????
As long as we know Mommy is mommy everything else doesn’t matter and beleive me we KNOW mommy. Oh and we also know the neighbours who feed us when mommy is not home.
Women who think they are “mommas” to cats need to get a life and a human baby. I have a cat too, and adore her, but man… this is pathetic.
Didi,
Did it ever occur to you that some women CANNOT have babies of their own. FYI, I have a life and have TRIED for FIVE YEARS to have a baby and cannot. I have two dogs and three cats and they all know me as “mommy” and I don’t care what YOU or anyone like YOU thinks about that.
Hello, I wanted to give a little “input” on the subject of “recognition”, by Cats ( & Dogs)
Years ago, I had a pretty little Black Female (Spay) named “Phoebe”, and a little Manx, named Bunnzso (aka “Pudge”)
At one point, my “then” Husband wanted to get “outfitted” with some “Western” clothing, which also included a Cowboy hat and boots.
When he would wear the Cowboy hat around the Cats, they would Hiss and run away and hide. As soon as it came off, they were “fine”.
I think they also relate to the “shape” of a person’s body, and if it is “altered” in any way, they cannot always recognize that person. His head suddenly had taken on a new “shape” which was strange to the Cats, and they reacted “accordingly” because they thought it was a stranger, entering their “space”… Just my “opinion” no scientific “fact” there!
I remember one lovely moment when I came home from work unexpectedly early.
Titch was sitting on the windowsill, watching the world go by, when I came close to the window, he did a sort of double-take, looking once, looking away, then looking back quickly and meowing through the glass.
I take this to prove that he recognises me over other passersby. And it was so funny!
Of course cats recognize us by sight!
Cats are like people – only Better!
Yes they do.
The neighbour has various cats, and when she came to visit (without the cats as we have a bulldog which might chase them) one (male cat) was very unusually sitting on the post watching her at our dining room table through the window. He stayed there right through dinner. One couldnt help but feel he was watching over her, in a solicitous sort of way.
Didi,
I saw your earlier post on March 15th which did give us a considerable insight on what you had to say. Thank you for that.
I also saw your recent comment
Didi posted a comment on March 19th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Women who think they are “mommas” to cats need to get a life and a human baby. I have a cat too, and adore her, but man… this is pathetic.
Please do not get me wrong, but there is an etiquette that you need to adhere to when you post your comments on the web. We would really appreciate if your comments are polite and constructive. A blog is just like someone’s home, consequently you can’t just barge in and act like you own the place. Please be respectful and polite towards, the blogger and the rest of the readers. Keep in mind that most blogs have rules, be it a blog privacy policy or a commenting policy. Be sure to read it and respect them before commenting, to avoid any unwanted complications.
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If any of my above comments offended you, I sincerely apologize, but someone had to set some guidelines in order to avoid personal attacks in the future on public forums.
I really found LINs post informative… I was a little bewildered by the strong response to it?! Information is information.. Unless it is wrong there is nothing wrong with elaborating or adding in other tidbits to educate others. And when you have a pet.. You are like their (adopted) parents, are you not??
Thanks for all the info!
Why not just use Google? You will
come across a comprehensive study in the peer-reviewed scientific Journal of Vision that compared cats and dogs. Conclusion: cats don’t recognize faces.