Do you know why lynxes need tassels on their ears?

Tassels at the tips of the ears are a distinctive feature of lynxes. But they also have caracals - another creature from the cat family, and some domestic breeds, like Norwegian Forest and pixie bob.

So why do they need them? Zoologists do not have an exact answer, but there are several versions.

Most likely explanation: tassels needed for beauty. In the course of evolution, individuals who had such an ornament attracted more attention from the opposite sex, and the trait eventually became fixed in the genes of lynxes. And those who were deprived by nature could not leave offspring - that's all. That is, tassels are such a cat analogue of a peacock's tail or branched deer antlers.

There is also an opinion that lynxes may communicate with each other by twitching their ears. Well, or brushes help to better capture sound vibrations, feel the direction of the wind - in general, they are used by animals as locators. This hypothesis does not yet have any clear evidence, but it sounds good.

To test the theory empirically, one would have to recruit a dozen lynxes, cut off their tassels and see if they would hunt worse than the rest of their relatives. And this draws on cruelty to animals, so the idea has been put aside for now.

There are also versionthat six on the tips of the ears of lynxes are needed to drive away flies. Otherwise, the insect will climb right into the auditory canal, penetrate the brain and be able to control the cat's body. A joke, of course, but a fly in your ear is a very unpleasant thing when you don’t have hands and tweezers.

In addition, some believe that brushes help lynxes and caracals hide in the tall grass. Allegedly, the hair on the ears sticks out vertically - just like blades of grass, and this blurs the contour of the cat's head. Man with his colored binocular eyesight such a disguise, of course, will not deceive. But lynxes often prey on all sorts of small animals that cannot see well and cannot distinguish colors, so the trick works against them.

In the end, brushes can have several options for their purpose at once. But, as we said before, it is most likely that this is just an ornament necessary for sexual selection.