![]() What's really interesting is that apparently, these 100 sounds were only a sub-set of the total number of vocalizations recorded. The answer might lie in a psychology study at Cornell University, where researcher Nicholas Nicastro played a collection of over 100 cat sounds from 12 cats to 2 groups of people. Why then, are cat sounds, such as the meow, generally directed toward humans more than other cats? Cat talk consists mostly of body language (although most humans don't understand this cat body language very well). ![]() Research into cat sounds and the effect they have on humans has revealed some interesting points, including how cats get what they want from people by using vocalizations. In fact, they have often been described as sounding like birds. Many members of the large Maine Coon cat breed, for example, generally have a soft meow voice. Sometimes the voice doesn't seem to match the cat, at least in physical size and appearance. These cats are talking up a storm (with some crazy snoring in the background)!Īt times, some cats sound like other animals when they meow, and some even sound almost like people. People have described the various vocalizations their cats make in many ways, including sounding like a baby, birds, or even monkeys. Some sing a smooth song like George Michael, and others are more raspy like Janis Joplin. Some have high pitched voices and some have low pitched voices. We're all familiar with the standard meow, but each cat is obviously unique. ![]() What about you? Are you domesticated? Are you regularly manipulated by the cat sounds flowing from the furry wizards in your house? Share your story about you and your cat. My own experience living with three cats for many years has given me a unique opportunity to observe many different cat sounds (or cat calls) under various behavioral circumstances.Įach of my cats has their own way of manipulating me with their unique blend of chirps, chortles, purrs, and full out meows. Nicholas Nicastro, Cat Person and Researcher Cats are very good at getting their own way."Cats are domesticated animals that have learned what levers to push, what sounds to make to manage our emotions, and when we respond, we too are domesticated animals." If you ask people who own cats what they do when they get up they say they feed their cats. "We found that cats learn to dramatically emphasise the peak when dealing with human owners that have a one-on-one relationship," McComb said.Īsked whether the cat's special purr is more effective than a dog's bark, or other demand for food, she said: "I think it might be more effective than a dog. However, not all cats have the cry the researchers, who examined 10 cats, found it only in those living in single-person households. On examining the frequency of the special purr, she found a peak similar to that of a baby's cry, which gave it a "noisy, slightly whiny quality". "Talking with other cat owners, I found that some of them also had cats which showed similar behaviour."Īfter testing human responses to different purring types, McComb and her team found that even those with no experience of cats judged the "solicitation" purr to be more urgent and less pleasant. ![]() "I wondered why this purring sounded so annoying and was so difficult to ignore," she said. McComb, whose usual subjects include African elephants and lions in the wild, began the research into domestic cats after noticing the "manipulative" purring of her own cat, Pepo. "The embedding of a cry within a call that we normally associate with contentment is quite a subtle means of eliciting a response – and solicitation purring is probably more acceptable to humans than overt meowing," she said. Dr Karen McComb, a specialist in mammal vocal communication at the University of Sussex, said that by employing an embedded cry, cats appear to be exploiting innate tendencies that humans have for nurturing offspring.
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