AFP
Cats coax their owners into giving them what they want
with a special purr that blends their normal soft, low sound with a
high-pitched element that is hard to ignore, British researchers
said on Tuesday.
The high-frequency part is similar to a cry or a meow, and cats
incorporate this into their normal, contended purr to exploit the
nurturing instincts of humans for their own needs -- usually to get
fed, according to scientists.
Lead author Dr Karen McComb of Sussex University in southern
England said she initiated the study after being repeatedly woken
up in the mornings by her own cat, Pepo.
"I wondered why this purring sounded so annoying and was so
difficult to ignore. Talking with other cat owners, I found that
some of them -- including co-author Anna Taylor -- also had cats
who showed similar behaviour," she said.
McComb and her team tested human responses to different purring
types, including "solicitation" purrs -- which included the
high-frequency element and were made by hungry cats -- against
"non-solicitation" or normal purrs.
"When humans were played purrs recorded while cats were actively
seeking food at equal volume to purrs recorded in non-solicitation
contexts, even those with no experience of cats judged the
?solicitation? purrs to be more urgent and less pleasant," she
said.
When the team re-synthesised the purrs to remove the embedded
cry, the urgency ratings decreased significantly.
McComb concluded that the cats were using the special purr to
make their views known without risking irritating humans with an
overt meow.
However, this solution appears only to work in cats living
one-on-one with their owners -- cats in large households usually
have to meow to be heard.
so cats annoy people till they give them what they want? cats
are evil!
