The Cat’s Meow: Don’t Fall for It

Cats can make over 100 different vocal sounds. They vocalize with purrs, growls, hisses, and meows. These vocalizations, however, are not all the same noises that the wild ancestors of the modern house cat would have made. Some of them are relatively new or different, the result of the domestication process. Further, a few seem to have a purpose that is secondary to communication: namely, manipulating the cats’ so-called “masters.”

Research done at the University of Sussex, U.K., indicates that cats are capable of producing a plaintive cry that closely mimics the sound of a crying baby. Cats can even camouflage this acoustic ruse within their purr. This cry taps into the subconscious parental instinct to feed and protect. In this case, however, the cat and not the baby is the one benefiting from the instinct.

Babies cry at a frequency range between 300 and 600 hertz. The plaintive cry some cats use registers in the similar range of 220 to 520. Researchers at the University of Sussex detected this tone within the lower frequency sound of purring. In other words, the tone functions like a subliminal message hidden within its normal purr. They also discovered that the louder or more intense the cry, the greater the effect on the human. The end result is, most often, the cat getting what he or she wants. In most cases, this seems to be food.

The tone was not present in all purrs, however, so cat owners need not fear that every rumbling expression of affection is secretly a manipulation. Many purrs are exactly what they seem to be: expressions of contentment or affection. Experienced cat owners soon learn to tell the difference between the two.