Every cat
owner has a story to tell of being blanked by their cat: We call to our cat, it
turns away, and some of us might be left wondering why we did not get a dog.
But your cat may be listening after all. More than that, it cares more than you
may think.
اضافة اعلان
A study by French
researchers that was published last month in the journal
Animal Cognition found
that not only do cats react to what scientists call cat-directed speech — a
high-pitched voice similar to how we talk to babies — they react to who is
doing the talking.
“We found that when
cats heard their owners using a high-pitched voice, they reacted more than when
they heard their owner speaking normally to another human adult,” said
Charlotte de Mouzon, an author of the study and cat behavior expert at the
Université Paris Nanterre. “But what was very surprising in our results was
that it actually didn’t work when it came from a stranger’s voice.”
Unlike with dogs,
cat behavior is difficult to study, which is part of why humans understand them
less. Cats are often so stressed by being in a lab that meaningful behavioral
observations become impossible. And forget about trying to get a cat to sit
still for an MRI scan to study its brain function.
So the researchers
for the latest study went to the cats’ homes and played recordings of different
types of speech and different speakers. At first, de Mouzon and her team were
worried that the cats were not reacting at all. But then they studied film
recordings of the encounters.
“Their reactions
were very subtle,” de Mouzon said. “It could be just moving an ear or turning
the head towards the speaker or even freezing what they were doing.”
In a few cases, the
cats in the study would approach the speaker playing a voice and meow.
“In the end, we had
really clear gains in the cat’s attention when the owner was using cat-directed
speech,” de Mouzon said.
The findings showed
that “cats are paying close attention to their caretakers, down to not only
what they are saying but how they are saying it”, said Kristyn Vitale, an
assistant professor of animal health and behavior at Unity College in Maine who
was not involved in the new study.
The new study
complements Vitale’s research into relationships between a cat and its owner.
This relationship is so important, Vitale’s research has found, that it
replicates the connection between a kitten and its mother.
“It is possible
that attachment behaviors originally intended for interactions with their
mother have now been modified for interactions with their new caretakers,
humans,” she said.
Unlike dogs, “most
cats actually prefer human interaction over other rewards like food or toys,”
Vitale said.
Genetics may also
play a role in why dogs are easier to study and are assumed to be friendlier.
“Dogs were artificially selected hundreds or
thousands of years ago based precisely on their capacity to be trained, whether
as sheepdogs, hunting dogs, or something else,” said Sarah Jeannin, a dog
behavior expert at the Université Paris Nanterre who was not involved in the
new study.
Jeannin disputed
the stereotype that dogs are closer to humans than cats.
“People say that
dogs are a man’s best friend, that you can trust them, and that they are very
loyal. But we don’t know what dogs actually think,” she said. “It’s really just
projection by us that dogs are in love with us.”
“For years,
scientists didn’t ask the right questions about cats,” de Mouzon said. Now,
those who are convinced of the perfidy of cats will not like the answers that
are emerging.
Cats do not hate us
after all, Vitale said, adding that “a growing body of work supports the idea
that social interaction with humans is key in the life of a cat.”
According to de
Mouzon, just because cats react in subtle ways does not mean they are aloof.
“Cats don’t do what
you expect them to do. But if cats don’t come when we call them, it may be
because they’re busy doing something else, or they are resting,” she said.
“People have these
kinds of expectations because when you call a dog, the dog will come. But if
you call a human when they are having a nap at the other end of the house,
would you go?”
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