Interspecies communication exists in a variety of species, with an entire spectrum of intentions. The bolas spider releases a moth sex pheromone to lure male moths to their death; deer exhibit tail-flagging to alert predators that they, thedeer, are aware of their presence; many species of birds share or understand panic calls or behaviors from other species of bird, warning of imminent danger, etc. A more complex and perhaps unnatural form of interspecies communication occurs when two differing species co-exist in the same habitat. The example in this example, an article by Jennifer Viegas – reporter for Discovery News – is between domesticated pets and their human owners.A new vocalization has been identified and studied in cats, called “solicitation purring”. This purr is particularly common when trying to rouse owners from sleep in the morning. Ten cats were recorded in the study, and this particular call was identified as urgent by nearly all fifty participants. This study’s lead author, Karen McComb, along with colleagues Anna Taylor, Christian Wilson, and Benjamin Charlton determined different types of cat purrs based on acoustic structural analyses.
McComb explained that what cats seem to be doing for the special purr "is producing the low fundamental frequency and its harmonics by muscular activation" -- what has been associated with typical purring -- "but also voicing a cry, probably with the inner edges of the vocal folds, which is then superimposed on the sound's frequency spectrum.
-Discovery News
While cats purr to each other and during states of solitary relaxation, the solicitation purring is strongly exaggerated and higher pitched when communicating with humans. The anatomical structure of a cat’s larynx is key to producing these calls, which are interpreted by humans as urgent. The animal’s vocal folds allow it to produce sounds – purrs and particularly meows – that can strongly resemble a crying baby. Any cat owners can surely attest to this phenomenon, myself included. This similarity innately draws human attention, as would the cry from a distressed baby.
The researchers are still unsure of whether these are learned behaviors by the cats, as they are found to be the most effective modes of communication with their owners, or if we, as humans, have chosen pets whose acoustic signals we find “recognizable and comprehensible”. Personally, I think it is a combination of the two theories. Mammals are social creatures, and when co-existing with another mammal, it is necessary to establish some form of successful communication.
Posted by Ashley Paon (5)
Nice article choice. Although I do not consider myself to be a "cat-person" I do find them interesting. A few days ago a friend stated at work that she had gotten a kitten that wouldn't purr or make normal kitten sounds. It seemed that she was weaned too early from her mother and it was apparent that she didn't learn how to purr. She has recently adopted a much older cat and that seemed to fix the problem. The kitten now has learned how to purr thanks to a tutor. I do now think purring is acquired through learning and perhaps has an epigenetics underlying factor as well. Maybe human responses to higher pitch sounds reinforces cats to produce these noises.
ReplyDelete~Alliam Ortiz
I have always wondered if my cat knew she'd be getting extra attension from me when she purred. She always purrs for no reason around me and it always gets her something (like her food bowl refilled or a nice chin scratch). I think you are right in saying that it is a combination of learned skill on the cat's part and human nature to choose a pet that we feel like we can communicate with.
ReplyDeleteIt's so interesting that species very different from eachother can communicate. Have any studies been set up to learn more about this soliciatation purring?
-Tricia Carlson
I really enjoyed this article. I am a cat lover, and know my cats have me wrapped around their paws. Do the researchers have any ideas how the cats learned to associate a particular manner of purring with the human response they want? I think interspecies communication is very important. Too many people don't pay attention to it. It would be interesting if they did work with feral cats. Once they were domesticated, do you think they too would be able to learn solicitation purring?
ReplyDelete-Emily Crete
This is really interesting.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your idea that this developed as a combination of cats learning what sound gets the results they want from us and people choosing pets with recognizable communication sounds, especially since humans and cats have been interacting in close contact since ancient times.
Have any studies been done with dogs to see if they communicate with us in a similar way?
-Sarah Benjamin
I have always had cats as pets growing up, but once my brother and I flew the nest, my mom became one of those crazy cat ladies. I think right now she has six cats, and a pomeranian, which basically counts as a cat. I believe that her "empty nest syndrome" led her to choose these cats as pets because they are similar to babies in that they are cute and cuddly, but also for their company. Thus I don't really believe that people choose pets with recognizable communication sounds. However, I do agree that cats have developed purring as a way to communicate with humans through learning. My mom's cats have learned that they will get what they want from her when they purr, but they ignore my brother because they know he is more likely to throw them across the room than to pet them.
ReplyDeleteThis article is pretty interesting. I am currently fostering a mother and her 5 kittens and have done so going on almost 7 weeks now. The kittens are all developing rather rapidly and vocalizations are becoming more distinct at this point, particularly in the sense of purring. A few of them love to purr and after reading this post I think that I am going to try to take more note as to when these occur in the sense of trying to get me up in the morning. I haven't really noticed that behavior yet but I also haven't really been looking for it either. Do you know if they are sure about the purring in a relaxing sense because I also heard that it wasn't a valid fact that purring was a relaxation response.
ReplyDelete-Jessica Abu-Hijleh
Regarding the question of why cats purr to begin with, this is actually still under debate! I found an article in the Scientific American that directly discusses this topic (please see http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-do-cats-purr). While it may simply be a source of communication to their young and to human companions, there is also belief that the sound frequencies emitted during purring have physiological healing qualities in terms of muscle atrophy and bone density.
ReplyDeleteAlso, after a frustrating amount of research, I couldn't find any other studies on "soliciation purring" and the only articles I found were simply commenting on McComb's original study. So, this is too new of a topic to make definitive conclusions about the types of purrs cats intentionally, or unintentionally, elicit. I think it's an interesting new study, nonetheless :)
-Ashley Paon