(Press-News.org) In a recent PeerJ Life & Environment study, Professor Jennifer Vonk from Oakland University presents compelling evidence that exotic cats possess the remarkable ability to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar human voices.
The article - "Catcalls: Exotic Cats Discriminate the Voices of Familiar Caregivers" - delves into the often-overlooked realm of voice recognition among Felidae species. While much attention has been paid to domestication and early experiences in understanding animals' ability to differentiate between familiar and unfamiliar humans, few studies have explored this phenomenon in the feline family.
Using carefully designed experiments, Professor Vonk’s graduate student, Taylor Crews, and her team investigated whether non-domesticated Felidae species could recognise familiar human voices. The results had some key takeaways.
The researchers found consistent evidence of voice recognition across pilot and main studies involving 25 cats from various species, including lions, tigers, and cheetahs. Cats responded more quickly, intensely, and for longer durations to familiar voices compared to unfamiliar ones, regardless of the use of their names or rearing history.
The findings suggest that close human contact, rather than domestication, is associated with the ability of cats to discriminate between human voices. It also challenges the notion that less social species lack socio-cognitive abilities comparable to more gregarious species. Professor Vonk explains “Non-group-living animals can exhibit social cognitive abilities such as heterospecific vocal recognition so we should not neglect the study of social cognition in less highly social species.”
The implications of this study are profound, particularly considering the widespread housing of cats of all species in human care. Understanding their capacity to differentiate familiar from unfamiliar human voices could have significant implications for their welfare and interactions with caregivers.
This study adds to the growing body of work challenging stereotypes about cats as aloof creatures. It underscores the importance of recognizing the cognitive abilities of all species, even those traditionally considered less social.
For media inquiries or to request an interview with Professor Jennifer Vonk, please contact: vonk@oakland.edu
END
Meow or rooaaar - exotic cats' ability to recognize familiar caregivers' voices
2024-02-15
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Dementia researchers share recruitment strategies for pragmatic clinical trial
2024-02-15
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Feb. 15, 2024 – According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than 6.5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease, and 1 in 3 older adults will die with the disease or another form of dementia. There’s also a growing need for improved care and support, not only for persons living with dementia but also for their caregivers.
Underrepresented populations are disproportionally more likely to have Alzheimer’s disease compared to other Americans, so there’s ...
Mount Sinai named official medical service provider for International Sumo League
2024-02-15
For the first time, the Mount Sinai Health System has been named the official medical service provider for the International Sumo League—the world’s largest league of sumo wrestlers. Physicians from the Department of Rehabilitation and Human Performance are playing a key role in preparing the elite sumo wrestlers competing in international tournaments, including the upcoming World Championship Sumo at the Prudential Center in New Jersey on Sunday, February 18.
“We are excited to partner with International Sumo League and offer comprehensive care and expert guidance ...
Nation's newest, most comprehensive blood cancer healing center to transform care landscape
2024-02-15
The Blood Cancer Healing Center, located at 3229 Burnet Avenue in Uptown Cincinnati, is poised to redefine care standards by offering comprehensive patient support and innovative treatments under one roof. With clinical services opening as part of a phased approach in the summer of 2024, this state-of-the-art facility will address the critical needs of the 1.6 million individuals affected by blood cancers, such as leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma, annually in the U.S. Other spaces within the facility are scheduled to open in 2025.
Care will be given around the clock in both the inpatient ...
New ‘time travel’ study reveals future impact of climate change on coastal marshes
2024-02-15
A new Tulane University study published in Nature Communications offers a glimpse into the possible impact of climate change on coastal wetlands 50 years or longer into the future.
Scientists are usually forced to rely on computer models to project the long-term effects of rising seas. But an unexpected set of circumstances enabled a real-world experiment along the Gulf Coast.
An extensive network of nearly 400 monitoring sites was established along the Louisiana coast after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Then the ...
Further funding for new device to improve treatment of anal fistula
2024-02-15
A consortium of Birmingham researchers, clinicians and industry partners has received a second £1.1m award from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) for a three-year study supporting the further development of a novel device that could revolutionise the clinical management of anal fistula.
In this intrusive and embarrassing condition, sufferers experience daily discomfort and smelly discharge from a tunnel between the bowel and skin around the anus. It affects mostly young people and has a significant impact on employment and family life due ...
Amsterdam UMC to use e-health tool to remotely monitor heart patients at home
2024-02-15
From today, patients and doctors at Amsterdam UMC's Heart Centre can make use of the app HartWacht (HeartGuard, in English) to supplement their care. Through the use of a small measurement instrument, around the size of a cereal bar, and a mobile app, patients can now have their blood pressure and arrythmias monitored at home. This means that patients need to visit their cardiologist less frequently. For doctors, this means they have more precise measurements and can act quicker where necessary. A ''win-win'' in the eyes of Michiel Winter, cardiologist at Amsterdam UMC and leader of this project.
"HartWacht ...
Proteins guide electrons to the right place
2024-02-15
Cells need energy to function. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg can now explain how energy is guided in the cell by small atomic movements to reach its destination in the protein. Imitating these structural changes of the proteins could lead to more efficient solar cells in the future.
The sun’s rays are the basis for all the energy that creates life on Earth. Photosynthesis in plants is a prime example, where solar energy is needed for the plant to grow. Special proteins absorb the sun’s rays, and the energy is transported as electrons inside the protein, in a process called charge transfer. In a new study, researchers show how ...
Language and culture may influence how our brain processes emotional faces
2024-02-15
Body language and the understanding thereof is a crucial part of communication. It is often assumed that humans can innately recognize other’s emotions, but there is growing evidence that the ability to decipher these emotions is not instinctive but shaped by people’s culturally shared understanding of emotions.
A team of scientists in the US decided to investigate how cultural upbringing and access to emotion category words, which categorize and facilitate access to a complex set of emotional ideas, experiences, and responses ...
New peer-reviewed EWG study finds little-known toxic crop chemical in four out of five people tested
2024-02-15
WASHINGTON – A new Environmental Working Group peer-reviewed study has found chlormequat, a little-known pesticide, in four out of five people tested. Because the chemical is linked to reproductive and developmental problems in animal studies, the findings suggest the potential for similar harm to humans.
EWG’s research, published February 15 in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, tested the urine of 96 people for the presence of chlormequat, finding it in 77 of them. EWG summarized the findings in an article published on its website.
“EWG’s new study on chlormequat ...
Antidepressant use lower in moms who have support from grandparents
2024-02-15
Mothers are less likely to take antidepressants if their own parents and parents-in-law are healthy and live close by– a new study finds.
On the flip side of the coin, antidepressant use was highest in mothers whose parents and parents-in-law were elderly, in poor health, and lived far away – possibly due to the stress caused by needing to care for and support older grandparents instead of receiving help from them.
The findings of this new longitudinal study which tracked 488,000 mothers of young children between 2000-2014 are published today in the peer-reviewed journal Population Studies.
“Previous studies have consistently shown that younger grandparents in good ...