Cats have a reputation for being rebellious and independent. Pets preferred by many, when comparing them with dogs their indifference and ability to “choose an owner” always stands out… And reject another.
In this sense, in an article published in the magazine Animals, a team of experts from the University of Paris Nanterre assured that there are ways to attract the attention of these adorable felines through different types of signals.
The recent study raises the question of whether cats are sensitive to the form of communication that their human interlocutor uses when interacting with them.
“When we communicate with them, what is more important to them? Is it visual cues or vocal cues? That was the initial question of our research,” Charlotte de Mouzon explained to Gizmodo.
According to what RT reports on the subject, to reach a conclusion, the specialists examined three types of interactions – vocal, visual and bimodal – by coding recordings of 12 cats that lived in cafeterias designed for these pets.
Even as a control condition, a fourth situation was implemented in which a person did not emit any communication signal.
When it came to highlighting how the cats reacted, the experts observed that they quickly interacted with the person who came into contact through visual and bimodal communication, compared to the control condition and vocal communication, the aforementioned site published.
Additionally, as part of the study, the experts revealed when the cats tended to move their tails the most, a gesture that usually characterizes them.
In this case, they found, the cats tended to wag their tails more frequently when the person completely ignored them, in contrast to visual and bimodal cues.
This led to the conclusion that the cats were stressed because, like humans, these animals can feel uncomfortable when not recognizing the intentions of another person in a room.
The aforementioned expert assured that she will continue studying in detail the modalities of communication between cats and humans, RT stressed.
Currently, Charlotte de Mouzon is collaborating on research into how owners respond to the visual and vocal signals of their feline pets, specifically when they meow at humans and not at each other.
