Human perception of intonation in domestic cat meows. Journal of Comparative Psychology 117 (1), 44-52. Classification of domestic cat (Felis catus) vocalizations by naive and experienced human listeners. (Eds) The domestic cat - the biology of its behaviour, Cambridge University Press, pp. The signalling repertoire of the domestic cat and its undomesticated relatives.

Do they sound familiar to you? Literatureīradshaw J y Cameron-Beaumont C., 1989. Here ends our lists of the main sounds cats make. It signals a state of strong excitement and possibly frustration for not being able to reach it. The typical situation in which a cat emits this sound is when it has fixed its stare on a prey and there is a barrier in between. It is a sequence of high-pitched sounds which a cat emits while at the same time its jaw is trembling. This sound is difficult to describe but impossible to forget once you have heard it. Did you know that deaf cats emit especially intense and noisy meows? On the other hand, when cats feel comfortable, such as when they are being fed or are looking for physical contact with their owner, the meows are shorter and more high-pitched and with a rising intonation. In situations which are unpleasant for cats, such as suddenly being combed or being in an unknown place or in the veterinarian's waiting room, cats emit long, guttural meows which are very intense and in a low pitch. Generally speaking, the more intense the emotion, the stronger the meow. Did you know that adult cats use meows mainly to communicate with people and almost never with other cats?Īlthough they do not have a specific meaning, meows can transmit information about the emotional state of the cat and the urgency of its “message”. It is believed that most meows are random sounds which the cat learns to use to communicate with the people around, so that each household with a cat has its own glossary of meows for food, caressing, playing, attention, etcetera. A meow near a closed door may indicate the cat wants to go out and one near an empty feeder that the cat is hungry. Vocal communication edit sounds produced with the mouth closed (murmurs purring, trilling) sounds produced when the mouth is first opened and then gradually. It can serve to call attention to something in its surroundings, making it possible for us to understand the cat's message. In some cases the meowing can begin or end with another sound, such as a trill or a grunt. This sound can last between a fraction of a second and various seconds and cats produce it by opening their mouth and then gradually closing it again. Cats and humans can be very much alike, but perhaps we haven't dedicated enough time on getting to know them better and become aware of this.Īlready in ancient Egypt the quintessential sound of a cat was “meow”, which meant “cat”.

Cat sounds like baby