When you call your cats by their name, do they respond, or just simply yawn and go back to sleep? When they don’t come to you when you call them, have you ever become suspicious that your cats have honed the art of selective hearing? This burning question may have inspired a group of curious researchers to launch a more thorough investigation.
According to The Independent newspaper, a study was recently made by a group of scientists at the University of Tokyo. Researchers involved in the study learned that while cats do recognize our voices, they will only respond to us when they are darned-well ready to do so.
The study was made over a period of 8 months, and was designed to help the scientists learn more about how and when felines respond. Twenty pet cats were evaluated in their homes by the researchers. During the study, the scientists played five recordings for each of the kitties; but only when their guardians were not within sight. The first three recordings had strangers calling the cats by name. The fourth recording was made by the guardian calling the cat and the fifth was made by a different stranger.
The cats’ responses to each of the calls were analyzed by the researchers by observing and measuring their ear, head, tail and paw movements as well as their vocalizations, and pupil dilation. All the cats moved their heads and ears upon hearing their names called to determine from where the sound originated, which demonstrated orientation behavior.
More than half of the cats responded identically to the sound of any voice. Thirty percent moved their ears and 10 percent meowed or moved their tails. However, all the cats showed a greater response upon hearing their guardian’s voice than they did when hearing the voice of a stranger. Interestingly, none of the cats moved in response to any of the voices calling them.
So is it possible that cats didn’t evolve to obey humans? Summing up their findings, the study authors said,
“These results indicate that cats do not actively respond with communicative behavior to owners who are calling them from out of sight, even though they can distinguish their owners’ voices. This cat-owner relationship is in contrast to that with dogs.”
They theorized that the difference in the lack of the cats’ responses was due to the different ways cats and dogs were domesticated. For thousands of years dogs have been bred and trained by humans, whereas cats basically domesticated themselves when they made themselves invaluable to humans as magnificent rodent hunters. According to the researchers,
“Historically speaking, cats, unlike dogs, have not been domesticated to obey humans’ orders. Rather, they seem to take the initiative in human-cat interaction.”
While this results of this study may be fascinating to some people, if this writer’s cats have a justified reason to respond to my voice, whether they can see me or not; they come charging like a herd of elephants, especially when they catch a whiff of a tasty tidbit that I might be offering them.
Cats always have a good reason for any of their behaviors. Don’t you think that it’s up to us to understand them rather than expect them to do our bidding? Tell us your opinion in a comment.
Jo
Photo credit Flickr User Niklas
Perfectly put Marc, couldn’t agree more
Walter and I were in the front garden an hour ago waiting for Babz to come from work, I saw her coming round the corner and lifted Walt up and said ‘Here’s Babz’ and he jumped on the wall and set off at a rate of knots along all the walls, jumping the gates, to meet her!
So I think cats know our names too, he couldn’t have recognised her or her ‘scent’ from such a distance, could he?
Love the poem! It gets me to wondering, however, if cats respond to their names or rather to the sound of their human companion’s voice. I guess if they are in the mood to connect with them- as we do with fellow humans- (love caller I.D. for example), then they will come and snuggle or pat us on the cheek. However, at meal times it is a no brainer- IF they are hungry:) Love the comments here this morning. They are precious.
The concept of “selective hearing” normally applies to married couples 😉 I don’t think humans are that different to cats.
Want them to.
Sweet poem! I like the research. And I think they are right, as is Michael for the most part. The fact that the cats had greater response to their guardians call, stands to reason that cats expect we humans have the same instincts and ‘airwave’ communication they do! When they don’t come running, they are sending a signal much like in the poem. Not now! I think as far as they are concerned, you heard them loud and clear!
Bigfoot certainly has selective hearing. Old Marvin comes running over hill and dale when you call him. Understand too, his new name has only been his just over a year (I think). He isn’t hearing his name, he is hearing me call! Feral Yellow is the same. But only at normal meal times.
The cat deserves credit for knowing what the heck he wants, and maintaining the self confidence to not dance jig just because we want them too.