貓能看見鬼ghosts？

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“貓能看見鬼”這種說法很早之前就開始流傳了。東方認為狗屬陽性，貓屬陰性，因而貓能看見鬼。
也有西方傳聞說，貓的眼睛是和魔鬼交易得來的，因此能看見鬼。

People have long believed that cats are capable of seeing ghosts. Easterners hold that cats are Yin in nature,
which enables them to see ghosts while westerners believe that cat eyes were given by demon.

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貓真的能看見鬼嗎？若非如此，它們為什麼會有這些奇怪的行為舉動呢？

我們首先從這雙眼睛開始研究。

貓的眼睛明顯不同於人類的眼睛，由於它的晶狀體和角膜較大。貓眼的感光細胞層是人眼的6－8倍，這也就意味著它收集到的光線比人類多1.5倍，且貓只需要人1的光線，就能看到物體。因而到黑夜時，貓就變得比人類更為靈敏。

Unlike humans, cats have larger lenses, corneas and six to eight times more photoreceptor cells than humans, meaning that they can collect 1.5 times more light than humans and only require one-sixth the amount of light as that of a human to see.

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同時貓對運動的物體極為敏感，其極限為0.4cm/秒。面對同樣一個場景，人類可能會看得眼花繚亂，而貓卻能在眾多繁雜事物中，鎖定那隻正在移動的小蟲。所以，有時貓能看到人類看不到或是沒注意到的東西。
Meanwhile, cats are extremely sensitive to moving objects. They can detect motions at the minimum speed of 0.4cm/sec. Hence, they can quickly target at a moving bug in a complex environment where humans can’t see or notice such a tiny object.

除此之外，貓這一怪異行為還和它的性格有關。俗話說：“好奇心害死貓”，貓的好奇心特別強，但其實是由警惕心驅使的。由於貓進入人類家庭的歷史較短，它們還保留著許多野外生活的技能，又作為一種獨居動物，貓天性對外界保持著一種警惕心。對於任何移動的小物體，會本能的將其設為獵物，進行伏擊，對於任何新事物，它們一定要確認其安全性後，才能放鬆警惕。

What’s more, this kind of behavior may also be related to their natures. As the proverb goes, “curiosity killed the cat”, cats have a strong sense of curiosity triggered by their vigilance. Due to the short history of domestic cats, some of their survival instincts still remain, treating moving object as prey. Most cat species have solitary lifestyles, so they are always on guard against the unknown, before making sure that they are safe.

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