New Evidence Suggests Cats Recognise People by Smell

It’s well known that dogs have a good sense of smell, but where do cats come in the ranking? Perhaps showing that we shouldn’t rule out having more sniffer cats at airports and train stations (we say ‘more’ because there already are some! Meet the ‘sniffer cats’ – Warwickshire Police’s newest recruits – CoventryLive), a recent study has suggested that cats may recognise people by their smell! We thought this study would be interesting to delve into. So today, we will talk about feline olfaction, whether cats do recognise people by their smell, and how this might relate to their behaviour at home.

Feline Olfaction

Olfaction, or the sense of smell, is a key component of how cats understand and interact with the world, along with the other major senses. Feline olfaction generally works the same way it does in other mammals. A smell is microscopic chemical particles that can be detected by an animal. These chemicals are brought into the nose and mouth passively during breathing, or actively by sniffing or rubbing the nose on a surface (or the Flehmen response – more on this later). Within the nose is a complex network of thin bone called turbinates. The ethmoidal turbinates are covered in tissue called olfactory epithelium. The olfactory epithelium contains specialised receptors that each bind to a specific chemical. When a chemical is brought to the olfactory epithelium, it binds to an associated receptor and activates a neurone (nerve cell). The neurone transmits an electrical signal to the olfactory bulb of the brain, where the information is processed and sensed as smell. All this takes place in fractions of a second.

Cats have some specialisations to aid hunting, avoid danger and communicate with other cats. Cats have large and intricate ethmoidal turbinates – this creates a larger surface area available for olfactory receptors, ensuring they can detect even subtle odours. They also have an organ called the vomeronasal organ (VNO), or Jacobson’s organ, located on the roof of their mouth – it contains olfactory receptors specialised for detecting pheromones produced by prey animals, predators and other cats. Cats utilise the Flehmen response, where they lift their head and push out their lips, to bring chemicals directly to the VNO. This is commonly seen when scent rubbing with their face too.

It is hard to determine how ‘good’ a cat’s sense of smell is; it is undoubtedly far superior to human smell, but likely not as powerful as dogs. Humans have around 5 million olfactory receptors, a dog more than 220 million. The numbers reported online for cats varies from around 10 million to 200 million, though the number of receptors does not necessarily correlate to increased sense of smell.

Can Cats Recognise People By Their Smell?

The Study

So having established that cats have a pretty good sense of smell, a 2025 Japanese study set out to investigate the behaviours of cats when presented with the smell of known (i.e. their owner) human, and unknown human smells. It is known that some animals, particularly dogs, chickens and horses, utilise their right nostril to sniff unknown smells, a process called lateralisation. Cats are known to use their right ear to listen to the sound of other cats, and their left ear to listen to other species, but it was not known whether they used a specific nostril for smell. The study postulated that cats would smell the unknown odour for longer than the known odour, and utilise lateralisation (right-sided as in other species) for the unknown odour.

30 cats (11 male and 19 female) were selected for study, with 17 owners (some had multiple cats in the study) and 8 unrelated people participating. Swabs were taken from the people by rubbing select areas of their body repeatedly. These were placed in individual tubes. Unused swabs were also used as a control. The people were asked to avoid anything that might alter their odour, such as alcohol, smoking, spicy food, exercise or perfume.

Each cat was then presented with three tubes affixed to a plate, containing the odour of their owner, an unknown person, and the empty control. The cats were left to interact with the tubes, and the activity recorded. The test was repeated three times, with the tubes in different locations each time. After the trial, each owner was given a questionnaire asking how they interact with their cat, asking questions such as “how often do you play games with your cat?” and “how often do you pet your cat?” and asked to score their cats personality based on terms like “insecure”, “calm”, “active”, “excitable” and “affectionate”. These results were used to determine the cat-owner relationship scale (CORS) and the cat’s personality type (neuroticism, extraversion, dominance, impulsiveness or agreeableness).

The Results

The results showed that cats did spend longer sniffing an unknown odour (~4.82s) compared to their owner’s odour (~2.4s) or the control (~1.93s). The results were considered statistically significant (meaning the results were likely to be true, not random chance). The cats did also demonstrate lateralisation, utilising their right nostril to sniff unknown odours at first, before shifting to their left once familiar with the smell – this matched the behaviour seen in dogs and horses. However, the study also found that cats utilised certain nostrils based on the position of the tubes, possibly indicating either this gave them greater access to the smell, or to prepare them for rubbing their faces on the tubes to scent mark.

When personality was considered, there was no correlation between cat personality and how long they sniffed the odour, but certain personalities sniffed certain odours more frequently – however, only the results for male cats were considered statistically significant. It was also noted that cats that sniffed the blank tube first were more neurotic, while more cats that sniffed the known odour first were more extraverted; cats that sniffed the known or unknown smell first were more agreeable.

What This All Means

It is known that weaned kittens sniff unknown female cats for longer than their known mothers – this study’s results imply that cats can distinguish between their owner’s and other people’s odours, and spend longer sniffing the unknown odour, possibly to process it. If the brain structure of cats is similar to what studies in other species have found, then cats process new information in the right half of the brain, while the left half controls routine behaviour – this may be why the cats used their right nostrils to smell the novel odours then switched. It is not clear if these findings mean cats actually recognise their owner’s smell, however, or are just aware the smell is not new to them.

It may also be the case that a cat’s personality may determine the way it interacts with the world, in particular sniffing. Though it should be remembered that this study was small, and assessment of personality, although based on a study of over 8000 cats, is still subjective and likely influenced by the owner’s own personality. Nevertheless, you may find that your cat may be more or less likely to sniff unknown objects based on their personality.

Day to day, it is unclear how all these results may affect the average cat and interactions with humans. Other senses are almost certainly going to come into play when ‘recognising’ a human, such as sight and sound. Learned behaviour will also influence why it seems your cat may recognise you. And it is important not to anthropomorphise your cat too – does your cat recognise you and your smell? Or are they just anticipating mealtime? It’s still up in the air and even the study recognises that more research needs to be done into feline olfaction and whether they can recognise individual humans.