Headlines

Your Cat Recognizes Your Voice, Study Suggests

The results “highlight the importance of one-to-one relationships for cats.”

Published

3 years ago

October 24, 2022

PETS+ Staff

Cats recognize their owners’ voices, according to a new study.

In a study of 16 housecats, the felines tended to change their behavior when hearing their owners talk, Science Alert reports. They would frequently show behaviors such as freezing, flicking their tails and twitching their ears.

The cats only took note when the owners used their high-pitched “talking to a pet” voice. When the owners used their normal voice to talk to their cats, there was little reaction. Likewise, the cats seemed to ignore speech by strangers, even when they used their cat-directed voice.

“Our results highlight the importance of one-to-one relationships for cats, reinforcing recent literature regarding the ability for cats and humans to form strong bonds,” the researchers wrote.

The study was published in the journal Animal Cognition.

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