Cat calls signal just who is in charge in pet relationships

Published on Monday 13 July 2009 22:00

DOMESTIC cats have developed subtle ways of coaxing their owners into feeding them, according to new research.

A study has found that the animals play on the maternal instincts of Britain's nine million cat owners by emitting an urgent cry or meowing noise alongside an otherwise pleasant purr.

Scientists believe the resulting sound is difficult for people to ignore because it sends out a subliminal message that taps into our instinctive sense to nurture offspring.

University of Edinburgh graduate Dr Karen McComb, a behavioural ecologist, said the frequency of the catcall is similar to that of an infant's cry.

Inspired by her own cat, who consistently wakes her up in the mornings with an insistent purr, Dr McComb discovered other cat lovers fell victim to the same manipulative behaviour.

She said: "Our study indicates such a cry – embedded within the naturally low-pitched purr – is dramatically emphasised by cats in the context of food solicitation and humans are highly sensitive to it.

"These purrs may not have the same urgency of wailing infants who are hungry or distressed but their particular acoustics are likely to make them very difficult to ignore."

Dr McComb, who has studied vocal communication in mammals from elephants to lions, added: "House cats know what they want and how to get it from you. Anyone who has ever had cats knows how difficult it can be to get them to do anything they don't already want to do.

"But it seems the house cats themselves have had distinctly less trouble getting humans to do their bidding.

"Cats are very good at learning. We do not know if they are aware they are doing it or whether it is instinctive.

"But once they see it is having an effect they are able to exaggerate it – particularly when in one-on-one situations with their owners."

She described the behaviour as "very subtle" and said it remains unclear whether other domesticated animals employ similar tactics.

Dr McComb, co-founder of the Centre for Mammal Vocal Communication Research at the University of Sussex, said many of the signals used by domestic cats when interacting with humans seem to originate from the animals' period of dependency.

Although the cats were perfectly willing to use their coercive cries in private, when strangers came around they tended to clam up.

Dr McComb's team, whose findings are published in Current Biology, had to train ten owners to record their own cat's cries and then played them back to 50 people – some of whom kept cats themselves and others who did not.

The cat's ploy appeared to be most common among the animals enjoying close one-to-one relationships with their owners.