Do cats have eyebrows?

Web surfers ask Google the esoteric question: “do cats have eyebrows?”. It is a slightly pointless question but a number of websites decided to answer it so I will throw my hat into the ring.

No eyebrows or eyelashes human-style

In my considered opinion, it is far-fetched and stretching the boundaries of one’s imagination to agree that cats have eyebrows or eyelashes. They don’t need them.

Domestic cats do, however, have some whiskers above their eyes. But they are placed well above the eyes and whiskers (vibrissae) do not serve the same purpose as human eyebrows or eyelashes.

We all know that human eyebrows are there to stop sweat and small particles coming into contact with the eyeball. Just above the eye of a cat, we know, is fur, which more than adequately serves the same purpose. However it is obviously not in the shape of an eyebrow. It is wall-to-wall hair.

To reiterate, the human skin is hairless just above the eye therefore there has to be an eyebrow to protect the eye. Just above the eye of a cat there is copious quantities of fur. Therefore there is no need for a specific item of anatomy such as the eyebrow.

Eyelashes

As far as I’m concerned, the same argument goes for eyelashes. The cat’s equivalent of the human eye lid is covered in fur. Once again there is no need for any protection with an eyelid because the fur more than adequately does the job. At the boundary between the fur and the eye some hairs do stick out which is quite natural. However, this is not an eyelid although there may be some semblance of similarity. It is simply the edge of the skin in which the fur is embedded and therefore the fur might stick out slightly at that point.

Conclusion

In my opinion, domestic cats have neither eyebrows nor eyelashes because they don’t need them. What they have is a fur coat which is above the eye and which does a better job at protecting the eye than the human’s eyebrows and eyelashes.