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> The inner ear facilitates the cheetah's remarkable ability to maintain visual and postural stability while running and capturing prey at speeds of up to 65 mi

> The inner ear facilitates the cheetah's remarkable ability to maintain visual and postural stability while running and capturing prey at speeds of up to 65 miles per hour. Until now, no one has investigated the inner ear's role in this incredible hunting specialization. This is crazy. How does the ear affect the ability to move? I guess Cheetahs and cats in general just have insanely acute hearing.

bkanber 9y ago
The article goes into depth on this. It has nothing to do with hearing, but rather the balance system of the inner ear. Cheetas' inner ears are different from other cats, and they have more brainpower for processing the balance signals, so they are more sensitive and more responsive when it comes to feats of balance. This helps them hunt at very high speeds because they're able to keep their heads stabilized and fixed on their prey.
icegreentea2 9y ago
The inner ear (vestibular system) helps you maintain balance. The inner ear has a series of curved liquid filled canals that are also lined with sensitive hairs. As your head accelerates, the liquid sloshes around and the hairs pick up on the movement. Being able to stablize your head during running lets you do a few thing: * It probably makes it easier to continue tracking the prey. It probably makes it easier to see what the prey is doing (are they about to turn? are they looking somewhere? what's going on?) * While running, if you can minimize any vertical movement, you can minimize energy consumption. Presumably even if your body/shoulders were displacing vertically while running, if you could maintain your head at a fixed vertical position with respect to the ground, you could save the energy put into moving the head against gravity. Obviously this advantage is heavily biomechanically and anatomically situational, and may not always be the case
andrewljohnson 9y ago
Kind of the same way your eyes help you stay balanced. Try and close your eyes and stand on one foot.
hux_ 9y ago
The very cool chicken based steady cam vid should give you an idea https://youtu.be/_dPlkFPowCc https://youtu.be/_dPlkFPowCc https://youtu.be/UytSNlHw8J8 https://youtu.be/UytSNlHw8J8

bkanber 9y ago

The article goes into depth on this. It has nothing to do with hearing, but rather the balance system of the inner ear. Cheetas' inner ears are different from other cats, and they have more brainpower for processing the balance signals, so they are more sensitive and more responsive when it comes to feats of balance. This helps them hunt at very high speeds because they're able to keep their heads stabilized and fixed on their prey.

icegreentea2 9y ago

The inner ear (vestibular system) helps you maintain balance. The inner ear has a series of curved liquid filled canals that are also lined with sensitive hairs. As your head accelerates, the liquid sloshes around and the hairs pick up on the movement. Being able to stablize your head during running lets you do a few thing: * It probably makes it easier to continue tracking the prey. It probably makes it easier to see what the prey is doing (are they about to turn? are they looking somewhere? what's going on?) * While running, if you can minimize any vertical movement, you can minimize energy consumption. Presumably even if your body/shoulders were displacing vertically while running, if you could maintain your head at a fixed vertical position with respect to the ground, you could save the energy put into moving the head against gravity. Obviously this advantage is heavily biomechanically and anatomically situational, and may not always be the case

andrewljohnson 9y ago

Kind of the same way your eyes help you stay balanced. Try and close your eyes and stand on one foot.

hux_ 9y ago

The very cool chicken based steady cam vid should give you an idea https://youtu.be/_dPlkFPowCc https://youtu.be/_dPlkFPowCc https://youtu.be/UytSNlHw8J8 https://youtu.be/UytSNlHw8J8