Why do domestic cats have thinner fur between the ear flaps and the eyes?

The Live Science website asks a similar question but I think the way I have asked the question is more accurate. They ask "why do cats have bald spots in front of their ears?" Well, firstly, these are not bald spots. The hair is thinner between the top of the eyes and the flaps. Secondly, although Live Science claim that small wild cats have the same anatomical characteristics, I don't think they do. On this page you will see a headshot of a serval which is a medium-sized wild cat compared with a headshot of a black domestic cat.

This is typical of the black domestic cat but there are variations:

Black domestic cat showing thinning hair from above the eyes to the base of the ear flap where skin is genuinely bald. The photograph is from Wikipedia and therefore published it under licence.

This is a serval:

Serval headshot showing continuous fur above the eyes and up to the flaps. This photograph, it is believed, as in the public domain.

You will see that the serval's fur between the eyes and the that is pretty solid and it doesn't seem to be thinning to me. Another point worth making is this: every time we discuss this topic we invariably show an image of a black domestic cat. This is because there is greater contrast between the white skin underneath the black fur making the thinning coat more obvious.

Also the fur there tends to stand on end. It is vertical which makes the skin underneath more visible.

Another point worth making is this: I don't think all domestic cats have the same level of thinning fur at this point on their face. It varies which is understandable because domestic cats do very.

But it has to be said that often times we see this characteristic so what causes it? The frustrating answer is that we don't know. I think one reason is that the hair strands tend to sit more vertically at that point which makes the skin below easier to see which could add to the impression that there is partial bolding at that point.

Live Science suggests that the thinning fur at that point is to help with hearing because the sound waves bounce off the head between the eyes and ears before entering near ear canal and impinging upon the eardrum. So this thinning fur maybe to do with improving hearing. That's the best guess so far.

It might have nothing whatsoever to do with hearing, however. It might just be a domestic cat trait because of their domestication. Fur is present to keep the cat warm and to protect them. Arguably, both of these benefits are not strictly required by a well cared for domestic cat. Perhaps, then, it is an evolutionary trait during the 10,000 years of domestication. That is another big guess.

It may be nothing to do with evolution. It could be a problem with thinning coats generally due to their lifestyle and/or diet which might not be entirely appropriate but which is not clear to humans. Perhaps the domestic cat is losing fur and this process is not visible in most areas of the coat because the fur is denser elsewhere than in the area between the top of the eye and ear flaps.

So perhaps this so-called bald patch is a symptom of a generalised inadequate domestic cat caregiving and its variation is because in some homes caregiving a superior than in other homes. We need another study on this to do some tests to get to the bottom of it.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Children waiting for an inheritance from their rich mom should support her if her cats and dogs do!

Children who are waiting for a large inheritance from their rich mother who loves her cats and dogs should be cautious. They should read this story and learn a lesson.

In this instance, an elderly woman in China with the surname Liu has left $2.8 million fortune to her cats and dogs in her will because she felt that they have supported her in her old age whereas her children have not.

She said that her children have never visited her. She is still alive but the change in her will has been reported in online news media including the Independent newspaper.

She is taking it out on her kids. She feels neglected. The problem is that in China, I'm told, you can't bequeath money to animals in your will. 😢

If that is correct, Liu's will, as it is currently drafted, will be ineffective. I suspect she's been told about that now.

She appointed a veterinary clinic to be the administrators of her will.

What she should do now if she wants to stick with the terms of her will is to appoint a person who she can entirely trust and bequeath the money to him or her on the instructions that they hold the money in trust for her pets to take care of them for the remainder of their lives and of any money left over to be given to her children.

That would probably be a fairer and more workable way to do this.

She has clearly made her point anyway and I suspect that her children, who are not named, will have picked up on this story and decided to try and convince their mother to change her mind.

I don't know whether in China beneficiaries under a will can challenge it. In the West they certainly can and it happens quite often. It happens, for instance, when the deceased makes a will when they did not have the mental capacity to do it. They didn't understand what they were doing and therefore it can be overturned on an application to court.

And therefore, a will which is unusual and which cuts out close family members especially the kids, might be overturned by the kids in court which should be considered carefully by Liu. There is no guarantee that a judge would overturn a will but it is a possibility and in any case you don't want litigation over a will. That said I don't know how things operate in China in this respect.

There's an argument that children should look after their parents but not to the point where it looks as if they are maximising their chances to get some money off their mother when she dies! That can lead to arguments between siblings if the sibling who cares for their mother gets the lion's share of the estate!

RELATED: Lagerfeld’s pampered cat Choupette to get paws on £150 million fortune.

It is not that unusual for wealthy single people to give a lot of money to pets. The most famous recent case concerns Choupette the Birman cat whose caregiver was the German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. He was besotted with Choupette and left her millions!

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.