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Contribute to Feline Ear Research
William (Bill) T. Peake is working on a research project
aimed at understanding the variations in the middle-ear structure
of exotic cats, and how those variations provide more hearing capabilities
specific to each species' size and life style. If you have an exotic feline which
has passed on, you may be able to assist this research by providing the
opportunity to study your cat's ears. Post-mortem material
(the whole head) of any exotic species is useful, as long as the ears have not been
damaged. If the frozen head is packed with dry ice it can be shipped Fed
Ex overnight. A disposable Styrofoam ice chest might make a suitable
container. Shipping expenses can be
charged to the recipient, and the container can be returned.
Your contribution to the research will be acknowledged in
resulting publications, if you wish.
For more information contact:
William T. Peake
Eaton-Peabody Laboratory
Mass. Eye & Ear Infirmary
243 Charles Street
Boston, MA 02114
Phone: (617) 523-3376
Email: wtp@epl.meei.harvard.edu
Bill Peake is a Professor of Electrical and Bioengineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He works in association with the Eaton-Peabody Laboratory of Auditory Physiology at the Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary of Boston. He has had support from the National Science Foundation for this project.
About the Research
Three approaches are used to determine the interspecies structural variations and their effects on the ears' responses to sound. In one of these, museum specimens are used to determine structural variations of skull and ear dimensions. Measurements in over 400 specimens of 34 exotic cat species have been analyzed to give a comprehensive description of the variation in the Felid family.
The second approach is to measure acoustic responses in the external ear of live specimens, when they are anesthetized for other purposes (for instance, medical treatment or examination). (This approach has led to a completed study which is published in the J. of Comp. Physiol. A. Vol. 186, pp. 447-465, 2000).
The third approach is to use post-mortem material, which has been frozen before tissue has begun to decay. In these specimens acoustic responses to sound stimulation of the ears can be recorded and the effects of modification of the structures can be determined. A paper based on this approach applied to a lion obtained from a zoo has been published (J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 101, pp. 1532-1549, 1997). The results showed that responses of the lion ear are similar to those of domestic cats, except that in the larger lion ear particular features occur at lower sound frequencies. An example of the kind of conclusion that might come from this study, is the possibility that the air volume in the middle ear is larger in species from dry habitats in order to make their low-frequency hearing more sensitive to allow detection of prey, predators and conspecifics (for instance, mother-kitten communication) over larger distances.
Submitted by: John Turner, September 2000
Copyright © 2000 LIOC-ESCF
