Domestic cats don’t chuff. Tigers chuff. It is a form of communication made at close range and part of the tiger’s greeting behaviour. The tiger chuff is sometimes described as a ‘prusten’. I believe that they are the same sound. … Continue reading →
A group of scientists led by Katherine Young of King’s College London have come to the conclusion that the whining of distressed dogs are more emotionally affecting to humans than the pitiful meows of distressed cats. They recruited more than … Continue reading →
The news media have described this as caterwauling but I would not call it that because strictly speaking caterwauling is a vocalisation employed for long distance mating calls. This is a couple of male lynx in a standoff (face off) … Continue reading →
At one time, in the long distant past, there was a theory that the cat’s voicebox had nothing whatsoever to do with purring. Experts argued that it was to do with the cat’s blood flowing through her veins into the … Continue reading →
Do cats purr with other cats? Or do they purr only with humans? I’ll get straight to the point: domestic cats do purr when not in the presence of humans and some wild cat species purr too. We normally associate … Continue reading →
The long-range cat sounds (vocalisations) that we know well are the roars of the roaring big cats: lion, tiger, jaguar and leopard. I’ll start with these iconic wild cat species. Tiger This is what I wrote years ago about the … Continue reading →
Please turn your volume down before playing the video! This is a video of still photos of jaguarundi cubs with an audio track of the extraordinary sounds that they make. They are fighting over food. I have edited out some … Continue reading →
The Tiger chuff is a close-range sound and an integral part of the tiger’s greeting behaviour. Tigers have several vocalisations (sounds) which function in close-range situations for greeting, appeasement, aggression and reassurance. The friendly sounds at close range include, as … Continue reading →
It is sad but true: animals “grieve” for lost relatives. They also grieve for friends who have passed on. In one instance we are told a Siamese cat howled for days and would not eat after her sister died. It … Continue reading →
