I recently wrote an article about a cat that has for ear flaps. They named him Audio. That article is about the misdescription of the condition because a cat with 4 ear flaps does not have four sets of ear anatomy. They just have 4 ear flaps; the bit that we can see. And therefore, it is wrong to say a cat has ‘four ears’ as four ears describes all of the ear. Perhaps I was being pedantic but I am being accurate.
And this article is also about accuracy. The number one search result using Bing on why cats have four ear flaps at the moment (5th Aug 2024) is a website called catbandit.com.
The author of that site confidently states that “Contrary to popular belief, four-eared cats are not the result of a genetic mutation. Instead, they are a rare and naturally occurring genetic variation known as polydactylism.” We know that polydactylism describes the presence of extra toes normally on the forepaws. It’s quite common particularly on the East Coast of America around the Boston area.
But is their statement, correct? Well, firstly let’s say that the statement as a whole is illogical because polydactylism is a genetic mutation. They described it as a “genetic variation” but that in effect is the same thing anyway; just using different words.
But importantly, my research indicates that the presence of an extra ear flap is due to a genetic mutation. In fact, that must be the case. There can be no other cause as it is an inherited developmental defect. It’s very rare, much rarer than polydactylism which is also, as mentioned, caused by an inherited genetic mutation.
So, my simple fact check strongly indicates that the website catbandit.com has got this wrong and I’ve told the search engine Bing about this as we are able to do because just underneath the results they ask “Was this helpful?”.
The point that I am making is that this article by the catbandit.com website should not be ranked number one. I will also like to add that it is padded out for SEO reasons, which I don’t like to see. It’s basically tricking the search engines to rank it higher by creating lots of extra information which is irrelevant to the question as to why, rarely, some cats have 4 ear flaps.
Further, catbandit.com does not provide any references to support their bold statement. I think with a statement like that they need to provide good and clear references by which I mean scientific references and they don’t.
My reference for this fact check is Google Gemini which is an AI bot which searches the Internet for an answer and they could not find one which supports catbandit.com’s statement.
And finally, Bandit.com also missed describes the condition by asking, “Why do cats have 4 ears?”. The question should be “Why do some cats, rarely, have 4 ear flaps?” But that wouldn’t be good SEO would it?
Asking AI
I also asked ‘Poe’ another AI bot the same question I asked Gemini: “Is polydactylism the reason why rarely some cats have four ear flaps?”
It’s response is as follows:
No, polydactylism (the presence of extra digits) is not the reason why some cats have four ear flaps. The presence of extra ear flaps in cats is a separate genetic condition, unrelated to polydactylism.
The extra ear flaps in cats, sometimes referred to as “double-eared” or “split-eared” cats, is a rare congenital physical trait caused by a genetic mutation. It results in the ear cartilage splitting, leading to the formation of an additional ear flap. This condition is not associated with polydactylism, which is the presence of extra digits on the paws.
The genetic factors that lead to the development of extra ear flaps in cats are not fully understood, but it is believed to be a spontaneous genetic mutation that can be passed on to offspring. The condition is quite rare and only affects a small percentage of the overall cat population.
Cat anatomy
I have one page on a subdomain on cat anatomy (and hundreds of pages on the topic on this site by the way). The subdomain page is referred to by Wikipedia! Neat. Click here to see it if you wish.
