Cat owners know the precious purrs and meows of their feline companions by heart, and it's probably no surprise to them that both sounds have their own meaning. A chatty cat will meow for a variety of reasons – to greet someone, ask for a treat, or even to complain about an inconvenience. Purrs, while not as vocally flexible, tell a different story.
New research published in Scientific reports showed that a cat's purr says much more about its personality than its meow. By studying the acoustic characteristics of the two sounds, the researchers determined that individual purrs are easier to recognize in individual cats, while meows fluctuate greatly depending on what the cat is feeling or what it needs. These differences highlight the lasting impact of domestication on cats, especially on the way they “talk” to us.
Read more: Why People Love Their Chaotic and Misbehaving Cats
The developing language of cats
Cats are most likely domesticated about 10,000 years ago in the Middle East, and since then they have developed a wide range of meows to suit their needs. Cats meow less when communicating with each other; if they do meow, it is most likely during territorial disputes or mate attraction, and is more common in cats that have not yet reached full maturity.
Meowing, rather, is the ideal vocal strategy for domestic cats when communicating with people. Over time, they have learned to change the duration, frequency and tone of their meows to get what they want from us.
Meanwhile, purring has always been associated with social bonds between cats. Despite the variability of meows, purrs are low-frequency sounds that remain constant. In most interactions with people and other cats, they reflect a feeling of calm, although they are sometimes used to calm themselves when the cat is scared or in pain.
Purr vs. Meows
For the new study, scientists recorded the vocalizations of 27 individual cats in 2020 and 2021, collecting the sound of meows whenever the cats expressed a desire to eat or human attentionand purrs every time he pets them.
Using techniques originally developed for automatic speech recognition in humans, the researchers then determined how well the computer could recognize the vocalizations of each individual cat.
This analysis showed that purrs and meows can be distinguished individually, but purrs are the best marker of a cat's personality. According to the researchers, each registered cat had its own characteristic purr.
“People pay attention to meows first because cats mainly use these sounds towards us,” said lead author Danilo Russo, a professor of ecology at the University of Naples Federico II, in his paper. statement. “But after we examined the acoustic structure in detail, a sustained purr turned out to be the best way to identify different people.”
Creating a voice connection
The researchers also compared the meows of domestic cats with those of five species of wild cats—the African wildcat, the European wildcat, the jungle cat, the cheetah and the puma—using audio from the Berlin Natural History Museum's animal sound archive. Using this acoustic data, they found that the meows of domestic cats are much more variable than those of wild cats, further showing that domestication has caused cats to adapt their meows based on interactions with people.
The researchers suggest that purring may reflect an individual cat's “default” acoustic profile, shaped by features of the vocal tract rather than emotional influences. On the other hand, meowing appears to be less important for conveying identification signals and is better suited for eliciting specific responses in humans.
“Living with people who vary widely in routines, expectations and reactions likely favors cats that can flexibly adapt their meows. Our results support the idea that meows have evolved into a highly adaptable negotiating tool in a human-dominated world,” said senior author Mirjam Knörnschild, a behavioral ecologist at the Natural History Museum in Berlin.
Read more: A cat's whiskers help her navigate and can tell us how she's feeling.
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