[imagesource: Bonnin Studio / Stocksy]

Speak to any cat owner and they will tell you, at great length, that their cat totally understands them.

My mother has her own special voice that she uses just with her cat – an annoyingly high-pitched cutesy squeal that seems to really rile the feline up, flicking her tail and slinking around, as if the animal is responding to her.

It looks like my mother beat the scientists to it, showcasing how cats seem to understand when you are talking to them, and when you are using ‘cat talk’ versus normal human-to-human talk.

Studying the intricacies of cat-human relationships, per Gizmodo, lead author Charlotte de Mouzon and her team at Paris Nanterre University’s Laboratory of Compared Ethology and Cognition found that cats seem to be able to distinguish their owner’s voice from that of a stranger’s, while also being able to identify when their owner is specifically talking to them.

While it is true that most cat owners increase their pitch and change their voice when talking to their feline friends, this study published on Monday in the journal Animal Cognition focused on the cat side of this communication.

National Geographic reported that de Mouzon wanted to know if cats know when their owners were talking to them, and whether they respond differently to strangers:

So De Mouzon recruited 16 cat owners in Bordeaux to take part in the experiment. She first recorded the owners speaking specific phrases, such as “Do you want to play?”, “Do you want a treat?”, and “See you later.” Their voices were recorded twice: once as if they were talking to their cat, and once as if they were speaking to a person.

Recordings in hand, De Mouzon conducted the next stage of the experiments in the cats’ homes, where the animals were comfortable and would respond naturally. At each home, she played audio recordings of both the cat’s owner and strangers speaking the same phrases, while video recording the cat’s responses.

She found that the cats responded when they heard their owners using cat-directed speech, but not human-to-human speech.

In addition, they did not show a response when hearing a stranger’s voice, whether they were using cat talk or adult talk.

All in all, de Mouzon said the findings suggest that cats really do have an ear for human language, but perhaps only in a specific tone and from those that they’re already familiar with:

“Even knowing cats aren’t human babies,” she says, “we can still talk to them in a way they’re sensitive to and that can reinforce our bond.”

Mason Glasco and Cooter, the talking TikTok kitty, will be happy to hear this:

Because scientists can’t exactly ask animals what they’re thinking, this sort of study into a cat’s behaviour and perception of the world is rather challenging.

Still, de Mouzon feels that their experimental design was enough to suggest that cats do form a unique social relationship with their humans even if it doesn’t outright prove it:

“It’s further evidence showing that there is attachment between cats and humans. And I think that’s important to keep in mind, because for decades, we have been thinking that cats are very independent creatures, that they just want food and shelter, and that they don’t care about humans,” she said.

“The fact that they show a special reaction to a special way we talk to them means, I think, that we are something more just than a food provider in their world.”

That’s news enough to make you all warm and fuzzy inside.

Enjoy those cat conversations knowing full well that you’re being heard loud and clear.

[sources:natgeo&gizmodo]