Cats are brilliant… They distinguish the voice of their “boss”.

A cat can distinguish the voice of its “master” addressed to it, from his own voice when speaking to other people, or from the voice of a stranger speaking to the cat, a new small French scientific study has concluded. Depending on the voice they hear and distinguish, cats change their behavior or not.

The study reinforces the view that cats may not be man’s “best friends” as dogs are thought to be, but they do form bonds with their owners or with people who care for them regularly. The tone of the human voice differs depending on who is being addressed (e.g. a baby or a dog) and, according to new research, a cat can ‘catch’ the distinctive tone of its carer’s voice and react accordingly.

The researchers of the University of Paris in Nanterre, led by Dr. Charlotte de Mouzon, who made the relevant publication in the journal Zoology “Animal Cognition”, conducted experiments with 16 cats, which were studied how they reacted to pre-recorded voices of either their caretakers or strangers, addressed either to the cats or to other people. The changes in the behavior of the cats involved immobility and indifference, ear flapping, pupil dilation, tail wagging, etc.

When the cats heard the voice of their owner (but not a stranger), they displayed characteristic behaviors such as turning their ears towards that voice, increased mobility in space and widening of their eyes. But when their owner spoke to another human and not to themselves, the cats significantly reduced their behaviors and reactions, understanding that he was not addressing them (even though in all experiments the cats only heard voices from speakers and did not see people).

The researchers concluded that their findings add a new dimension to human-cat relationships, showing that cats and humans can form strong bonds with each other on a “personal” level.

Read the News today and get the latest news.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News and be the first to know all the news.