Almost every animal on the planet has a sharper sense of smell than humans. While humans have trained dogs to sniff out drugs, explosives, or even illnesses, most people have ignored the sense of smell that cats have.
Cats use sebaceous glands — located primarily on the lips, chin, between the eyes and ears, at the base of the tail and around the anus — to secrete sebum. This oily substance is odorless to us but contains scent markers that are meaningful to cats. Thus a cat’s sense of smell can be extremely sharp and important.
To learn more about the science behind how cats use their sense of smell, click here.