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Vocal recognition of owners by domestic cats (Felis catus)
Abstract
Domestic cats have had a 10,000-year history of cohabitation with humans and seem to have the ability to communicate with humans. However, this has not been widely examined. We studied 20 domestic cats to investigate whether they could recognize their owners by using voices that called out the subjects' names, with a habituation-dishabituation method. While the owner was out of the cat's sight, we played three different strangers' voices serially, followed by the owner's voice. We recorded the cat's reactions to the voices and categorized them into six behavioral categories. In addition, ten naive raters rated the cats' response magnitudes. The cats responded to human voices not by communicative behavior (vocalization and tail movement), but by orienting behavior (ear movement and head movement). This tendency did not change even when they were called by their owners. Of the 20 cats, 15 demonstrated a lower response magnitude to the third voice than to the first voice. These habituated cats showed a significant rebound in response to the subsequent presentation of their owners' voices. This result indicates that cats are able to use vocal cues alone to distinguish between humans.
Supplementary resource (1)
... Recognition of human vocal cues has been investigated in many domesticated species, such as dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) (Adachi, Kuwahata & Fujita, 2007), horses (Equus caballus) (d'Ingeo et al., 2019), pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus) (Bensoussan et al., 2019), and cats (Felis catus) (Saito & Shinozuka, 2013). The few studies that have examined nondomesticated species focused on animals that are naturally gregarious, such as gorillas (Gorilla gorilla, Salmi, Jones & Carrigan, 2022) and elephants (Loxodonta africana, McComb et al., 2014). ...
... The few studies that have examined nondomesticated species focused on animals that are naturally gregarious, such as gorillas (Gorilla gorilla, Salmi, Jones & Carrigan, 2022) and elephants (Loxodonta africana, McComb et al., 2014). In a review of human vocal discrimination in nonhumans (Kriengwatana, Escudero & Ten Cate, 2015), the only relatively asocial species represented was the domestic cat (Saito & Shinozuka, 2013). There is little investigation of vocal recognition in exotic cats despite their prevalence in human care. ...
... However, megachiropteran bats (Pteropus) were able to follow point signals to locate hidden food items only when socialized with humans from an early age (Hall et al., 2011), suggesting that socialization with humans might be as important as domestication (if not more so) in facilitating an understanding of human communicative behaviors. Saito & Shinozuka (2013) demonstrated that domestic cats respond differently to their owner's voice compared to the voices of unfamiliar humans. If wild cats share with domestic cats the ability to differentiate human voices, this would suggest that this ability is not dependent on domestication or human rearing (henceforth, hand-reared). ...
Background
The ability to differentiate familiar from unfamiliar humans has been considered a product of domestication or early experience. Few studies have focused on voice recognition in Felidae despite the fact that this family presents the rare opportunity to compare domesticated species to their wild counterparts and to examine the role of human rearing.
Methods
We tested whether non-domesticated Felidae species recognized familiar human voices by exposing them to audio playbacks of familiar and unfamiliar humans. In a pilot study, we presented seven cats of five species with playbacks of voices that varied in familiarity and use of the cats’ names. In the main study, we presented 24 cats of 10 species with unfamiliar and then familiar voice playbacks using a habituation-dishabituation paradigm. We anticipated that human rearing and use of the cats’ names would result in greater attention to the voices, as measured by the latency, intensity, and duration of responses regardless of subject sex and subfamily.
Results
Cats responded more quickly and with greater intensity ( e.g. , full versus partial head turn, both ears moved versus one ear twitching) to the most familiar voice in both studies. They also responded for longer durations to the familiar voice compared to the unfamiliar voices in the main study. Use of the cats’ name and rearing history did not significantly impact responding. These findings suggest that close human contact rather than domestication is associated with the ability to discriminate between human voices and that less social species may have socio-cognitive abilities akin to those of more gregarious species. With cats of all species being commonly housed in human care, it is important to know that they differentiate familiar from unfamiliar human voices.
... Familiar individual discrimination has also been reported between heterospecific individuals, involving both phylogenetically similar species such as primates (Candiotti et al. 2013) and distant species such as red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) and Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) (Randler 2006). Heterospecific individual recognition has been documented in a small number of domesticated species, which were shown to be capable of recognizing human speech signals: horses (Equus caballus) cross-modally associate human voices to faces (Proops et al. 2009;Proops and McComb 2012), while vocal and visual recognition of familiar humans was shown, respectively, in cats (Felis catus) (Saito and Shinozuka 2013) and sheep (Ovis aries) (Peirce et al. 2001). A possible explanation was given by Proops and McComb (2012), who suggested that it could be adaptive for domestic species to recognize familiar humans significant to them, e.g., their owners. ...
... Here, the wolves were being tested on their ability to make category discrimination between familiar and unfamiliar voices repeating the same phrases. The habituation phase consisted of three different strangers' voices, pseudo-randomly presented across positions 1-3, since the serial presentation of three stimuli was demonstrated to be sufficient to induce habituation in both domestic cats and captive wolves (Palacios et al. 2015;Saito and Shinozuka 2013). The discrimination stimulus was the keeper's voice, always played as the fourth speaker, where a dishabituation with longer attention was expected if the wolves identified the change in voice. ...
... We called the presentation of five voices of the same type a "session". Strangers' voices -"S"-were presented in playback trials 1, 2, 3, and 5, and the keeper's voice -"K"-was presented in trial 4. Trials were separated by 25 s of interstimulus interval (ISI) of silence (Saito and Shinozuka 2013) to allow for reaction and relaxation. Sessions were coded according to the type of stimuli and voice sequences in the session (i.e., CALL01/S1_S3_S4_K_S2, SENTENCE01/ S2_S3_S1_K_S4, etc.). ...
The ability to discriminate between different individuals based on identity cues, which is important to support the social behaviour of many animal species, has mostly been investigated in conspecific contexts. A rare example of individual heterospecific discrimination is found in domestic dogs, who are capable of recognising their owners’ voices. Here, we test whether grey wolves, the nearest wild relative of dogs, also have the ability to distinguish familiar human voices, which would indicate that dogs’ ability is not a consequence of domestication. Using the habituation–dishabituation paradigm, we presented captive wolves with playback recordings of their keepers’ and strangers’ voices producing either familiar or unfamiliar phrases. The duration of their response was significantly longer when presented with keepers’ voices than with strangers’ voices, demonstrating that wolves discriminated between familiar and unfamiliar speakers. This suggests that dogs’ ability to discriminate between human voices was probably present in their common ancestor and may support the idea that this is a general ability of vertebrates to recognise heterospecific individuals. Our study also provides further evidence for familiar voice discrimination in a wild animal in captivity, indicating that this ability may be widespread across vertebrate species.
... The following protocol was adapted from the study of Saito and Shinozuka (2013) investigating cats' response to their owner's voice compared to a stranger's voice. In line with this study, we used the habituation-dishabituation paradigm, which allows experimenters to measure subjects' reactions during a one-time visit; therefore, no extensive training was required (Saito and Shinozuka 2013). ...
... The following protocol was adapted from the study of Saito and Shinozuka (2013) investigating cats' response to their owner's voice compared to a stranger's voice. In line with this study, we used the habituation-dishabituation paradigm, which allows experimenters to measure subjects' reactions during a one-time visit; therefore, no extensive training was required (Saito and Shinozuka 2013). Three identical vocal stimuli were presented serially, followed by a fourth distinct vocal stimulus and then a fifth one, that was the same as the first three ones. ...
... As all stimuli consisted of the cat's own name presented to each cat, phonological elements were identical between the owners' and strangers' calls. The purpose of this first experiment was to validate our methodological approach by comparing our results to those of Saito and Shinozuka's (2013) study, obtained in a habituation-dishabituation setting. Series-2 aimed at examining cats' responses to their owner uttering a sentence in CDS compared to their owner uttering a sentence in ADS. ...
In contemporary western cultures, most humans talk to their pet companions. Speech register addressed to companion animals shares common features with speech addressed to young children, which are distinct from the typical adult-directed speech (ADS). The way dogs respond to dog-directed speech (DDS) has raised scientists’ interest. In contrast, much less is known about how cats perceive and respond to cat-directed speech (CDS). The primary aim of this study was to evaluate whether cats are more responsive to CDS than ADS. Secondarily, we seek to examine if the cats’ responses to human vocal stimuli would differ when it was elicited by their owner or by a stranger. We performed playback experiments and tested a cohort of 16 companion cats in a habituation–dishabituation paradigm, which allows for the measurement of subjects’ reactions without extensive training. Here, we report new findings that cats can discriminate speech specifically addressed to them from speech addressed to adult humans, when sentences are uttered by their owners. When hearing sentences uttered by strangers, cats did not appear to discriminate between ADS and CDS. These findings bring a new dimension to the consideration of human–cat relationship, as they imply the development of a particular communication into human–cat dyads, that relies upon experience. We discuss these new findings in the light of recent literature investigating cats’ sociocognitive abilities and human–cat attachment. 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.
... Other studies have also shown that cats acquire social information from audition. They discriminate between their owner's voice and a stranger's [23], and they can recognize emotional sounds from other cats and humans, by matching vocalizations to facial expressions (Angry vs. Happy) [24]. In addition, they pass visible displacement tasks [25], confirming cats' ability to form mental representations of objects. ...
... This study adhered to the ethical guidelines of Kyoto University, and was approved by the Animal Experiments Committee of the Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University (No. [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. Rating procedures adhered to the ethical guidelines of Kyoto University and Bukkyo There were slight differences across testing rooms depending on cats' familiar spaces (house or cat café). ...
... Ethical statement. This study adhered to the ethical guidelines of Kyoto University, and was approved by the Animal Experiments Committee of the Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University (No. [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. Rating procedures adhered to the ethical guidelines of Kyoto University and Bukkyo University. ...
Many animals probably hold mental representations about the whereabouts of others; this is a form of socio-spatial cognition. We tested whether cats mentally map the spatial position of their owner or a familiar cat to the source of the owner’s or familiar cat’s vocalization. In Experiment 1, we placed one speaker outside a familiar room (speaker 1) and another (speaker 2) inside the room, as far as possible from speaker 1, then we left the subject alone in the room. In the habituation phase, the cat heard its owner’s voice calling its name five times from speaker 1. In the test phase, shortly after the 5th habituation phase vocalization, one of the two speakers played either the owner’s voice or a stranger’s voice calling the cat’s name once. There were four test combinations of speaker location and sound: SamesoundSamelocation, SamesoundDifflocation, DiffsoundSamelocation, DiffsoundDifflocation. In line with our prediction, cats showed most surprise in the SamesoundDifflocation condition, where the owner suddenly seemed to be in a new place. This reaction disappeared when we used cat vocalizations (Experiment 2) or non-vocal sounds (Experiment 3) as the auditory stimuli. Our results suggest that cats have mental representations about their out-of-sight owner linked to hearing the owner’s voice, indicating a previously unidentified socio-spatial cognitive ability.
... This suggests a difference in gazing behavior toward owners (in-group) versus strangers (outgroup). Although cats can distinguish between their owners and strangers, altering their behaviors accordingly 28 and showing different responses to the voices of their owners compared to those of strangers 29 , studies using the Strange Situation Test (SST) have found no significant differences in cat behaviors toward their owners and strangers 30 . Considering that the ancestral species of domestic cats, the African wildcat, is solitary and does not form groups 12 , it is plausible that even domestic cats living with humans may not perceive their owners as in-group members. ...
... were conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is possible that cats could not differentiate between their owners and strangers due to mask-wearing. However, it is known that cats can recognize their owners' voices 29 , and during the experiments, both the owners and strangers called the cat's name every four minutes, which was deemed sufficient for the cats to distinguish between them. Therefore, it is plausible that the cats differentiated between their owners and strangers but did not alter their gaze duration in response to either. ...
Although oxytocin (OT) plays a role in bonding between heterospecifics and conspecifics, the effects of OT on the formation of such interspecific social behavior have only been investigated between humans and dogs (Canis familiaris). In this study, for comparative evaluation of the effects of OT between dog–human and cat–human social interaction, we investigated the effects of exogenous OT on the behavior of domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) toward humans. We intranasally administered OT or saline to 30 cats using a nebulizer and recorded their behavior (gaze, touch, vocalization, and proximity). The results showed an interaction between the administration condition and sex for gaze duration. Post hoc analyses revealed a significant increase in gaze in the OT condition in male cats but not in females. There were no significant differences in gaze toward owners and strangers in any condition or sex. The male-specific OT-mediated increase in gaze toward humans observed in this study differs from previous research on dogs wherein such effects were observed only in females. These findings suggest an overall effect of exogenous OT on cats’ social relationship with humans as well as the possibility of different mechanisms between cat–human and dog–human relationships.
... Despite their worldwide popularity, characteristics of cat behaviour are still understudied, and, as underlined by Dawson et al. (2019), people's abilities to read this apparently 'inscrutable' species have attracted negligible research. Indeed, most research investigating human-cat communication has focused on cats' socio-cognitive abilities , Galvan and Vonk, 2016, Ito et al., 2016, Merola et al., 2015, Miklósi et al., 2005, Pongrácz et al., 2019, Quaranta et al., 2020, Saito and Shinozuka, 2013, Takagi et al., 2019, 2021. In contrast, fewer research has focused on humans' abilities to understand cats' communicative cues. ...
... Indeed, it was previously reported that humans were better at understanding their own cats' vocalisations compared to unknown cats' vocalisations (Ellis et al., 2015). On the other hand, cats have been reported to react differently to their owner's voice compared to a stranger's voice (de Mouzon et al., 2023, Saito andShinozuka, 2013), suggesting the importance of everyday interactions between cats and their humans for developing stronger bonds. Furthermore, recent literature has been pointing out to a "parent-child" like attachment bond between humans and cats, both from the human's perspective (Archer andMonton, 2011, Bouma et al., 2022;de Mouzon et al., 2022, Finka et al., 2019 and from the cat's perspective (Behnke et al., 2021, Schwartz, 2002. ...
As a central key to apprehend the human-cat relationship, the question of how humans decode the behaviours expressed by their feline companions has drawn scientists’ attention in the past decades. To this point, previous studies have not investigated humans’ understanding of cats’ communicative cues in a multimodal perspective. While communication generally implies multiple channels, the influence of signal modality as relates to human-cat communication, is still poorly understood. Therefore, the primary aim of the present study was to investigate whether people can identify cats’ communicative information using unimodal (visual or vocal) and bimodal (visual and vocal) signals. Participants (n=630) were recruited via online advertisement on social media. Each participant viewed 24 carefully operationalised video clips of cats in different emotional/behavioural conditions. Four categories were included: contentment, discontentment, solicitation (food or attention) and predatory behaviour. Clips were presented as vocal only, visual only, or bimodal (visual and vocal cues). Video clips showing a bimodal expression were identified with the highest score (91,8% of correct ratings) compared with the visual only (87,3%) and the vocal only (72,2%). All modalities considered, contentment returned the highest identification score (90,1% correct), followed by solicitation (87,2%), then predatory behaviour (86,3%). Discontentment was the most difficult behaviour to be correctly identified (71,6%). Finally, for all behavioural categories and modalities, professionals working with animals returned a higher score than lay people (86.2% vs 82.9%). Taken together, our data underline the influence of the signal modality on interspecific communication between cats and humans. Information emitted by cats as a bimodal signal (visual and vocal) is better understood by humans than visual signals. The most difficult to decipher for humans are vocal signals emitted alone. A better understanding of humans’ abilities to understand their feline counterparts, could potentially help pet owners, and animal care practitioners to optimise cat care and welfare.
... There are no comparable studies explicitly comparing the abilities of domestic cats to those of their wild counterparts raised in similar ways. However, both zoo-housed exotic cats (Crews et al., in review;Leroux et al., 2018) and domestic cats respond to the voices of their familiar caregivers Saito and Shinozuka, 2013), and human rearing may facilitate these effects. Domestic cats exhibit a suite of socio-cognitive skills, such as attention to gaze (Pongrácz et al., 2019) and human emotions (Galvan and Vonk, 2016) despite being considered relatively asocial (Bradshaw, 2016). ...
... In contrast to earlier findings in which rearing history did not impact puppies' abilities to read human social cues (Hare et al., 2002), for dogs, earlier exposure was associated with a better ability to follow human communicative cues such as pointing and calling by name. Although evidence has shown that cats attend both to their owners' voices Saito and Shinozuka, 2013) and to their own names (Saito et al., 2019), they tend to be less responsive to human efforts to gain their attention. Cats may respond faster to visual or bimodal compared to vocal cues (de Mouzon and Leboucher, 2023), and may use vocal cues only in combination with gaze (Ito et al., 2016), which could explain why owners perceive them as less responsive to their names. ...
... Additionally, they display the ability to distinguish human emotional expressions [10] and human attentional states [13,20]. Relying upon vocal cues, cats can discriminate their owner from a stranger [8,34] and recognize when speech is specifically addressed to them rather than addressed to human adults [8]. Cats can predict their owner's face upon hearing their voice and mentally map their owner's location relying on vocal cues, suggesting cross-modal mental representation of at least one human [19,35]. ...
... Nevertheless, when investigating human-cat communication, the impact of familiarity with the human experimenter needs to be taken into account. It has been reported that cats respond differently to familiar and unfamiliar humans [8,10,19,20,34,59]. In the present study, with communication elicited by an unfamiliar human, cats seemed minimally receptive to vocal communication compared to visual and bimodal communication. ...
Simple Summary
In a current society marked by closer relationships between humans and their pet companions, most cat owners interact with their feline partners on a daily basis. This study addresses whether, in an extraspecific interaction with humans, cats are sensitive to the communication channel used by their interlocutor. By examining three types of interactions—vocal, visual and bimodal (visual and vocal)—we found the modality of communication had a significant effect on the latency in time taken for cats to approach a human experimenter. Cats interacted significantly faster in response to visual and bimodal communication compared to vocal communication. In addition, cats displayed significantly more tail wagging when the experimenter engaged in no communication (control condition) compared to visual and bimodal communication. Taken together, our results suggest that cats display a marked preference for both visual and bimodal cues addressed by non-familiar humans compared to vocal cues only. Our findings offer further evidence for the emergence of human-compatible socio-cognitive skills in cats that favour their adaptation to a human-driven niche.
Abstract
Across all species, communication implies that an emitter sends signals to a receiver, through one or more channels. Cats can integrate visual and auditory signals sent by humans and modulate their behaviour according to the valence of the emotion perceived. However, the specific patterns and channels governing cat-to-human communication are poorly understood. This study addresses whether, in an extraspecific interaction, cats are sensitive to the communication channel used by their human interlocutor. We examined three types of interactions—vocal, visual, and bimodal—by coding video clips of 12 cats living in cat cafés. In a fourth (control) condition, the human interlocutor refrained from emitting any communication signal. We found that the modality of communication had a significant effect on the latency in the time taken for cats to approach the human experimenter. Cats interacted significantly faster to visual and bimodal communication compared to the “no communication” pattern, as well as to vocal communication. In addition, communication modality had a significant effect on tail-wagging behaviour. Cats displayed significantly more tail wagging when the experimenter engaged in no communication (control condition) compared to visual and bimodal communication modes, indicating that they were less comfortable in this control condition. Cats also displayed more tail wagging in response to vocal communication compared to the bimodal communication. Overall, our data suggest that cats display a marked preference for both visual and bimodal cues addressed by non-familiar humans compared to vocal cues only. Results arising from the present study may serve as a basis for practical recommendations to navigate the codes of human–cat interactions.
... Furthermore, they can recognize human emotions (e.g., happiness and anger) from human communicative cues (e.g., the vocal tone and facial expressions of people) [4,5] and the state of attention and interest in themselves from a person's gaze [6,7]. Previous studies have shown that cats increased ear and head movements upon hearing their owners' voices, rather than the voices of others [8]. It has been suggested that cats discriminate between their owners and others, and show attention and interest in their owners. ...
... Similarly, they engage in these behaviors with humans [58]. They can also identify the voices of their owners [8], suggesting that they are extremely sensitive to vocal stimuli. Thus, it is suggested that tactile and auditory interactions initiated by the owner are stimuli that can influence the physiological state of the cat. ...
Simple Summary
Cats are the most common pet animal worldwide. Therefore, enhancing their health and welfare is essential for owners. However, few studies have assessed the physiology of domestic cats noninvasively. In this study, we collected urine samples from domestic cats and quantified cortisol as an indicator of negative stress states, and oxytocin as a positive indicator. Furthermore, we investigated factors influencing these hormonal states, which reflect their physiological status. Our study revealed that the more frequently owners talked to and petted their cats, the higher their urinary oxytocin levels. We suggest that social interactions between cats and their owners are factors that may influence their health and welfare status.
Abstract
Physiological samples are beneficial in assessing the health and welfare of cats. However, most studies have been conducted in specialized environments, such as shelters or laboratories, and have not focused on cats living in domestic settings. In addition, most studies have assessed physiological stress states in cats based on cortisol, and none have quantified positive indicators, such as oxytocin. Here, we collected urine samples from 49 domestic cats and quantified urinary cortisol, oxytocin, and creatinine using ELISA. To identify factors influencing hormone levels, owners responded to questionnaires regarding their housing environment, individual cat information, and the frequency of daily interactions with their cats. Using principal component analysis, principal component scores for daily interactions were extracted. These results showed that the frequency of tactile and auditory signal-based communication by owners was positively correlated with the mean concentration of oxytocin in the urine. Additionally, this communication was more frequent in younger cats or cats that had experienced a shorter length of cohabitation with the owner. However, no factors associated with urinary cortisol concentration were identified. Our study indicates that interactions and relationships with the owner influence the physiological status of cats and suggests that oxytocin is a valuable parameter for assessing their health and welfare.
... A growing body of research shows that some animals discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar human voices in domesticated (Adachi et al., 2007;Saito & Shinozuka, 2013), captive (Leroux et al., 2018;Sliwa et al., 2011;Wascher et al., 2012) and wild settings (Dutour et al., 2021). Horses, Equus caballus, have also been shown to discriminate between the voices of different familiar humans (Proops & Mccomb, 2012). ...
... First, whereas most previous research was conducted in controlled laboratory settings, wind conditions in the field vary from day to day (indicated by high variation associated with Date as a random term in our analyses) and playback sounds may have been attenuated by wind and other background noises. Second, we used a novel, long passage of text, whereas other studies have used between one and six words that the animals were already familiar and may have already formed associations with (Adachi et al., 2007;Dutour et al., 2021;Leroux et al., 2018;Proops & Mccomb, 2012;Saito & Shinozuka, 2013;Sliwa et al., 2011;Wascher et al., 2012). It is unclear whether the discrimination shown in these experiments would generalize to novel utterances by the same speaker (see Kriengwatana et al., 2015). ...
The ability to detect and respond to indicators of risk is vital for any animal and, for many species, humans represent a key threat. We investigated whether wild jackdaws, Corvus monedula, a species that thrives in anthropogenic environments but is regularly persecuted by people, associate human voices with differential degrees of risk and differ in their responses according to local levels of human disturbance. Playbacks showed that nesting females did not discriminate between the voices of familiar men who posed differing levels of threat, generalize to unfamiliar individuals with similar regional accents or discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar accents and voices. They were, however, considerably more wary towards male than female human voices, which may reflect the greater likelihood of negative experiences with men than women. Responses to playbacks also differed across fine-scale spatial locations: females nesting in areas of the colony with high levels of disturbance were less likely to leave the nest cup in response to playbacks and were more wary on their return to the nest than birds nesting in less disturbed areas. Nevertheless, levels of local disturbance did not influence reproductive success. Together these results indicate that, although vocal cues alone may not suffice for wild jackdaws to discriminate between individual humans or generalize across categories of people, sensitivity to cues of gender and local disturbance may help jackdaws to optimize their defensive behaviour and maintain breeding success. Further research into plastic responses towards indicators of human risk is vital to understand and mitigate the impacts of increasing urbanization on wildlife populations.
... This ability may reflect the effect of selective breeding on dogs to respond to human vocal signals (Hare et al. 2002). To further investigate this, experiments could extend this study to tame wolves (Canis lupus), an undomesticated close relative of dogs, as well as to other domesticated species that are regularly exposed to human speech, e.g., cats and horses which have been shown to be sensitive to various aspects of the human voice and speech (Proops et al. 2012;Saito and Shinozuka 2013;Heleski et al. 2015;Galvan and Vonk 2016;Nakamura et al. 2018;Takagi et al. 2019;Saito et al. 2019). Springer Nature journal content, brought to you courtesy of Springer Nature Customer Service Center GmbH ("Springer Nature"). ...
Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) can recognize basic phonemic information from human speech and respond to commands. Commands are typically presented in isolation with exaggerated prosody known as dog-directed speech (DDS) register. Here, we investigate whether dogs can spontaneously identify meaningful phonemic content in a stream of putatively irrelevant speech spoken in monotonous prosody, without congruent prosodic cues. To test this ability, dogs were played recordings of their owners reading a meaningless text which included a short meaningful or meaningless phrase, either read with unchanged reading prosody or with an exaggerated DDS prosody. We measured the occurrence and duration of dogs’ gaze at their owners. We found that, while dogs were more likely to detect and respond to inclusions that contained meaningful phrases spoken with DDS prosody, they were still able to detect these meaningful inclusions spoken in a neutral reading prosody. Dogs detected and responded to meaningless control phrases in DDS as frequently as to meaningful content in neutral reading prosody, but less often than to meaningful content in DDS. This suggests that, while DDS prosody facilitates the detection of meaningful content in human speech by capturing dogs’ attention, dogs are nevertheless capable of spontaneously recognizing meaningful phonemic content within an unexaggerated stream of speech.
... response to approaches by strangers. Yet, owned domestic cats are known to distinguish voices from their owners compared with strangers' voices and display fearful behavior in response to the latter (Collard, 1967;Saito & Shinozuka, 2013), which explained the consistent effectiveness of human playbacks of strangers in deterring owned cats in the field trial. One way to further improve the perceived risk from human sound cues might be to utilize different pitches and tones of human sounds, for example, including threatening and intimidating voices instead of using only normal conversational voice. ...
Manipulation of animal behavior is a powerful tool for nonlethal wildlife management where lethal control is not possible. Animal behavior is driven by motivations to acquire food and mates and to avoid predation, and animals utilize their sensory systems to obtain information and assess perceived risks. It is therefore possible to achieve management objectives by exploiting animal motivation and risk assessment by using sensory cues to trigger behavioral responses. Domestic cats (Felis catus) are invasive predators contributing to global biodiversity loss, but cat management is controversial because cats are valued as companion animals. To develop a nonlethal approach to reduce cat impacts on native biodiversity, we conducted playback experiments and manipulated risks perceived by cats using auditory cues from a predator (humans) and competitors (domestic dog Canis familiaris and cats). We tested the effectiveness of sound cues to induce fear behaviors and deter cats from food patches in captive and urban environments. Human playbacks protected the greatest proportion of food patches, were more likely to reduce time spent feeding, and induced fleeing responses and spatial avoidance to a greater degree than competitor or control treatments. Human playbacks had a similar impact on both captive and free‐roaming urban cats. Cat and dog playbacks were effective in protecting food patches but induced fewer fear responses. Habitat complexity reduced the level of perceived risk and cat responses. Our study demonstrated the efficacy of using audio playbacks as deterrents for cats, and we are currently integrating playbacks into a management tool to repel cats from areas where they are not wanted but lethal control is not feasible.
... Nawroth et al. (2016) found that goats showed a preference for human faces displaying positive emotions, and Davis et al. (1997) demonstrated that rats will show a distinct preference toward familiar humans after positive interactions and handling. Similarly, Saito and Shinozuka (2013) found that domestic cats are able to recognise their owner's voice in an auditory discrimination task. Meanwhile, Burghardt (2015) documents occurrences of captive turtles playing 'tug of war' with their keepers, suggesting that the interaction, being one of 'play' behaviour, was a positively valenced one, with mutual co-operation and give-and-take. ...
Animal assisted interventions ( AAI s) are practices used for human wellbeing, whereby interactions with non-human animals are used for therapeutic purposes. AAI s can be offered clinically, to those suffering physical or mental illness; those who have a learning disability or neurodevelopmental disorder; people requiring occupational therapy or enrichment in settings such as prisons and nursing homes, and as an adjunct to formal education in classrooms. Whilst some AAI s are low risk, AAI animals can be placed in emotionally challenging situations, or even situations where they may be at physical risk. At present, there is a paucity of literature examining the welfare of AAI animals, and the practice remains unregulated. This paper therefore discusses the potential welfare issues for animals used in ‘animal assisted interventions’, and suggests how those issues could be addressed.
... In addition to the visual cues described above, cats can also retrieve social information from auditory cues. They discriminate their owner's voice from an unfamiliar person's voice 17 , mentally map the owner's position from her voice 18 , predict the owner's face upon hearing her voice 19 , and match emotional expressions and sounds 20 . Furthermore, a recent study showed that cats differentiate between their own name and similarsounding nouns 21 . ...
It is well known that dogs are capable of following human verbal instructions. However, very little is known about the equivalent ability in cats. In this study, we used a switched stimuli task to examine whether cats rapidly form picture-word association, which is a fundamental ability for word learning. We presented cats with two meaningless picture-word combinations, in the habituation phase. Then, on half of the trials we switched the combination (switched condition), but the other half of the trials remained as before (non-switched condition). If cats rapidly form picture-word association, they were expected to look at the monitor for longer in the switched condition, reflecting detection of the change. We used human speech as stimuli in Exp.1, and mechanical sounds (electronic sounds) in Exp.2. Cats expressed detection of the switched combination in Exp.1, where human speech and objects were paired. However, in Exp.2 where non-social sounds and objects were paired, there was no statistical difference between switched and non-switched conditions, although there was a main effect of condition when the data from the two experiments were pooled. These results demonstrate that cats can rapidly form picture-word association. Further research should investigate whether domestication has played a role in this ability.
... When it comes to animals kept as pets, individual recognition of their owners is of utmost importance as the animals are entirely dependent on their owners for food and care. Domestic cats have been demonstrated to be able to distinguish between their owners and strangers by vocal cues alone (Saito and Shinozuka, 2013). Adult domestic dogs are capable of distinguishing between their owners and strangers and have been shown to exhibit patterns of attachment behaviour towards their owners (Topa´l et al., 1998). ...
Individual human recognition is important for species that live in close proximity to humans. Numerous studies on domesticated species and urban-adapted birds have highlighted this ability. One such species which is heavily reliant on humans is the free-ranging dog. Very little knowledge exists on the amount of time taken by free-ranging dogs to learn and remember individual humans. Due to their territorial nature, they have a high probability of encountering the same people multiple times on the streets. Being able to distinguish individual humans might be helpful in making decisions regarding people from whom to beg for food or social reward. We investigated if free-ranging dogs are capable of identifying the person rewarding them and the amount of time required for them to learn it. We conducted field trials on randomly selected adult free-ranging dogs in West Bengal, India. On Day 1, a choice test was conducted. The experimenter chosen did not provide reward while the other experimenter provided a piece of boiled chicken followed by petting. The person giving reward on Day 1 served as the correct choice on four subsequent days of training. Day 6 was the test day when none of the experimenters had a reward. We analyzed the choice made by the dogs, the time taken to approach during the choice tests, and the socialization index, which was calculated based on the intensity of affiliative behaviour shown towards the experimenters. The dogs made correct choices at a significantly higher rate on the fifth and sixth days, as compared to Day 2, suggesting learning. This is the first study aiming to understand the time taken for individual human recognition in free-ranging dogs and can serve as the scaffold for future studies to understand the dog-human relationship in open environments, like urban ecosystems.
... These sounds are not just a part of a cat's daily life but also provide a window for International Journal of Molecular Zoology 2024, Vol.14, No.1, 1-8 http://animalscipublisher.com/index.php/ijmz people to understand their emotional world (Saito and Shinozuka, 2013). In the world of cats, vocal communication is a subtle and fascinating language that deserves in-depth exploration. ...
... Domestic house cats are sensitive to traits of individual identity encoded in the voices of their owners and can recognize them among the voices of other people (Saito & Shinozuka, 2013). Domestic house cats are capable of recognizing their names among other words (Saito et al., 2019). ...
This study investigates the frequency, temporal and power parameters in 11 (5 males, 6 females) captive feral domestic cats Felis silvestris catus, vocalising in their individual outdoor enclosures during the mating season. Discriminant function analysis (DFA) classified the meows to correct callers with 79.2% accuracy, which exceeded the chance level of 22.9 ± 2.8%, calculated with permutation test. Male meows were lower-frequency, with the maximum fundamental frequency of 0.37 ± 0.05 kHz vs 0.61 ± 0.16 kHz in females. Sex differences in the maximum, beginning and end fundamental frequencies varied from 32 to 39%, depending on acoustic parameter. The DFA classified the meows to correct sex with accuracy of 88.0%, which exceeded the chance level of 58.2 ± 3.1%. We discuss that the meows encode information about individual identity and sex and that acoustic differences in frequency parameters of the meows exceed sexual dimorphism of body size in domestic cat.
... Studies demonstrated that cats may form an attachment bond with their human caregivers [13,14], although Potter and Mills [15] did not find evidence of secure attachment as has been described in dogs [16][17][18]. Domestic cats may be able to understand human emotional expressions [19,20], can recognize owners from their vocal cues [21], and they often rely on their owners for information about non-familiar stimuli, adapting their behaviors based on the owners' emotional reactions in the "social referencing" process [22]. As shown in dogs [23,24], domestic cats are capable of perceiving information provided by humans through multimodal communication channels (i.e., acoustic and visual signals) and show faster responses when human signals are visual rather than acoustic [25]. ...
Simple Summary
The effect of living style (i.e., indoor/outdoor) on domestic cats was studied. The behavior of the domestic cats with different living styles (e.g., indoor only and indoor/outdoor) was observed during the impossible task paradigm, a test in which the cats learn to open an apparatus to obtain a food reward and, immediately after, experienced the expectancy of violation in a trial in which the apparatus was blocked. Tests were carried out in the house where the cats lived and the only person present with the cat during the test was the owner. The results show the effect of living style and age on the problem-solving approach of domestic cats. Indoor/outdoor cats spent less time interacting with the apparatus and showed stress behaviors sooner compared to indoor cats. Research on this topic can be useful for improving the welfare of domestic cats.
Abstract
Cat welfare is a topic of growing interest in the scientific literature. Although previous studies have focused on the effects of living style (i.e., indoor/outdoor) on cat welfare, there has been a noticeable dearth of analysis regarding the impact of lifestyle on cats’ inclination and mode of communication with humans. Our research aimed to analyze the possible effect of lifestyle (e.g., living indoors only or indoor/outdoor) on cat–human communication. The cats were tested using the impossible task paradigm test, which consists of some solvable trials in which the subject learns to obtain a reward from an apparatus, followed by an impossible trial through blocking the apparatus. This procedure triggers a violation of expectations and is considered a useful tool for assessing both the decision-making process and the tendency to engage in social behaviors towards humans. A specific ethogram was followed to record the behavioral responses of the cats during the unsolvable trial. Our results show the effects of lifestyle and age on domestic cats, providing valuable insights into the factors that influence their social behaviors. Cats that can roam freely outdoors spent less time interacting with the apparatus compared to indoor-only cats. Additionally, roaming cats showed stress behaviors sooner following the expectancy of violation compared to indoor cats. The lifestyle of cats can influence their problem-solving approach while not affecting their willingness to interact with humans or their overall welfare. Future studies on this topic can be useful for improving the welfare of domestic cats.
... Although nearly all of the thirty-seven felid species are solitary as adults, tending to form strong territorial connections as opposed to bonds with conspecifics, freeranging domestic cats have been known to form colonies within which they display preferences toward particular associates (Bradshaw;Izawa & Doi, 1993;Macdonald, Yamaguchi, & Kerby, 2000). Further, just as domesticated dogs have shown a sensitivity to human communicative cues (Udell et al., 2010), domesticated cats have demonstrated similar abilities, in regards to following human pointing gestures (Miklosi et al., 2005), distinguishing between human voices (Saito & Shinozuka, 2013), engaging in social referencing in uncertain situations (Merola et al., 2015;Merola et al., 2012a;Merola et al., 2012b), and distinguishing between emotional states in their owners (Galvan & Vonk, 2016). Most relevant to the current study, domestic cats have been shown to learn via observation with observer cats learning more quickly to avoid an aversive stimulus than cats trained using shaping procedures (John, Chesler, Bartlett & Victor, 1968). ...
Although felids in general tend to be relatively asocial, domestic cats live closely with humans and other domestic species and thus, might be expected to respond to cues indicating, for example, the reputation of others. Furthermore, recent research with other less social species suggests that social learning is not unique to group-housed animals. Therefore, here we tested seven cat dyads with one cat interacting directly with unfamiliar humans, and another indirectly observing the interactions, to determine whether they would learn the ‘friendly’ and ‘aggressive’ reputations of the unfamiliar humans. Cats did not show a tendency to interact less, or more cautiously, with aggressive experimenters based on contact duration and latency to approach. Cats that observed the interactions indirectly spent more time near both experimenters and approached more quickly on test trials compared to cats that directly interacted with the experimenters, but this may have been due to spending more time crated between trials. We hesitate to conclude that cats are incapable of inferring reputation based on this small sample. It is possible that cats would behave more discriminately if tested in familiar environments.
... For example, wild animals may discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar human voices Dutour et al., 2021). Yet, the majority of research on animals' perception of human auditory cues to assess human risk has been conducted on captive and domesticated animals (Adachi et al., 2007;Lampe and Andre, 2012;Proops and McComb, 2012;Wascher et al., 2012;Saito and Shinozuka, 2013;Ratcliffe et al., 2014;Leroux et al., 2018), while little is known about wild urban-living animals. ...
Rapid population growth and the urbanization of modern environments are markedly increasing human-wildlife conflict. Wild animals in urban landscapes can benefit from exploiting human resources, but are also exposed to increased risk of human-caused injury, which should favor the ability to perceive and respond to human cues. Although it is well known that domesticated animals use human cues that may indicate threats, less is known about wild animals living in urban environments. Herring gulls (Larus argentatus) in urban landscapes have adapted kleptoparasitic behaviors to obtain human food, often resulting in negative interactions with humans. Here we quantified both the behavioral and physiological responses of free-living urban herring gulls to human shouting. We presented urban gulls with a fake human food item and played back recordings of either a man shouting, a natural stressor (i.e., conspecific alarm call), or a neutral stimulus (i.e., robin song). We recorded behavioral responses and used non-invasive infrared thermography to measure eye-region surface temperature changes associated with the avian physiological stress response. We found that gulls exposed to shouting and to conspecific alarm calls showed similar changes in behavior (indicating high levels of vigilance) and eye-region surface temperature (indicating physiological stress). Both responses were significantly stronger than the responses to robin song. Additionally, the behavioral and physiological responses were positively correlated across individuals. Our results demonstrate that urban-dwelling gulls respond to human shouting and conspecific alarm calls in a similar way, and suggest that infrared thermography is a viable technique to monitor stress responses in free-living birds.
... Many kinds of research on discrimination ability of animals on human individuals used domesticated animals as study subjects, such as the domestic cat (Felis catus; using acoustic cues; Saito and Shinozuka, 2013), the dog (Canis familiaris; using visual cues and acoustic cues; Adachi et al., 2007), the pig (Sus scrofa domesticus; using visual signals and olfactory signals; Koba and Tanida, 2001), the cattle (Bos taurus; using individual humans as cues; Taylor and Davis, 1998), and the lamb (Ovis aries; using individual humans as cues; Boivin et al., 1997). As a result, some argue that artificial selection occurring during domestication could be an evolutionary force influencing animals' ability to discriminate among human individuals (Topál et al., 2005). ...
To avoid risks, organisms must recognize threatening heterospecies from non-threatening ones via acoustic cues from a distance. With land-use change, humans have encroached considerably into natural areas. Therefore, it is beneficial to animals to use acoustic cues to discriminate between different levels of threats posed by humans. Our study aims at testing this discriminatory ability in Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), animals that have been for long history subjected to human interaction. We tested whether eighteen semi-captive elephants could discriminate between voices of their own mahouts (i.e., who take care of the elephants exclusively) and of other mahouts (unfamiliar individuals). The results showed that elephants responded successfully to the commands from their own mahouts, with an average response rate as high as 78.8%. The more years the mahouts had been as their caretakers, the more the elephant showed active responses toward the commands. Female elephants responded to the commands more frequently and faster than males. Also younger elephants responded more frequently and faster than older elephants. We argue that Asian elephants can discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar humans by acoustic cues alone. Proximity with humans may be a factor, as fundamental as domestication, for animals to develop heterospecies discriminatory ability.
... While cats can effectively communicate to people, they also can respond accordingly to the verbal and nonverbal communicatory signals we send to them. To begin with, cats use vocal cues to distinguish between the voices of their guardians and the voices of strangers (Saito & Shinozuka, 2013). And despite being commonly characterized as socially aloof, cats are sensitive to human mood and vocalizations (Vitale Shreve et al. 2017). ...
Those who claim to be committed to the moral equality of animals don’t always act as if they think all animals are equal. For instance, many animal liberationists spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars each year on food, toys, and medical care for their companion animals. Surely, more animals would be helped if the money spent on companion animals were donated to farmed animal protection organizations. Moreover, many animal liberationists feed their companion animals the flesh of farmed animals, and some let their cats roam outdoors, foreseeing that they will kill wildlife. Maybe these companion-animal loving animal liberationists are moral hypocrites. Or maybe their behavior is justified. I defend the latter claim. By developing an ethic that emphasizes the moral significance of life-meaning and recognizes the important role that companion animals play in giving meaning to human lives, I argue that there are stringent side-constraints that apply to companion animals, but not to other animals. Consequently, it isn’t hypocritical to prioritize companion animals over other animals. We can have (and value) our carnivorous companions and be animal liberationists too.
... Moreover, there is now compelling evidence that cats may display distinct attachment styles towards human caregivers (Edwards et al. 2007;Vitale et al. 2019; but see Potter and Mills 2015) and may develop complex idiosyncratic and time-structured interactions (Wedl et al. 2011). Cats follow visual cues given by humans (pointing with arm: Miklósi et al. 2005; cueing with gazing: Pongrácz et al. 2019), are able to reproduce actions demonstrated by a human model (Fugazza et al. 2020) and they can also recognize auditory stimuli of their owner (Saito and Shinozuka 2013). Cats have shown a unique pattern of response to human cues (Pongrácz and Onofer 2020) and to employ a variety of human-directed behaviours, including attention-seeking vocalisations (e.g. ...
Companion animals are purposely included in various therapeutic/activity programmes also known as Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAI). These are receiving growing attention in the fields of nursing, medicine and psychotherapy because of their potential to complement classic therapeutical approaches and to foster health and wellbeing in the general population. Based on current knowledge in the field, this chapter examines the potential for domesticated animals, such as dogs, for providing emotional and physical opportunities to enrich the lives of many frail subjects. Overall an ever increasing research effort has been put forward to search for the mechanisms that lie behind the human-animal bond, such as animal cuteness, as well as to provide standardised methodologies for a cautious and effective use of AAI, taking into account animal welfare. The impact of this knowledge on different disciplines will be briefly described, also considering the concept of “one-health” and how this applies to reciprocal interactions, such as those between human and non-human animals.KeywordsAnimal-assisted interventionsPet animalsDogCatOne-health
... Domestic cats are a largely solitary species and are frequently presented in popular culture as having the hallmarks of psychopathy: selfishness, callousness, and manipulativeness (Saito & Shinozuka, 2013;Shreve & Udell, 2015). Despite this presentation, traits related to psychopathy are yet to be studied in cats. ...
We operationalised the triarchic model of psychopathy (boldness, meanness, and disinhibition) in domestic cats using a cat triarchic (CAT-Tri) questionnaire. In study 1 (n = 549), we identified candidate items for CAT-Tri scales using thematically analysed cat owner questionnaire responses. In study 2 (n = 1463), owners completed a questionnaire battery; the preliminary CAT-Tri questionnaire, Feline Five, and Cat-Owner Relationship Subscales. In study 3 (n = 30), associations between feline daily activity and Cat-Tri scales were investigated. A five-factor cat triarchic plus (CAT-Tri+) solution emerged: boldness, disinhibition, meanness, pet-unfriendliness, and human-unfriendliness. Disinhibition and pet-unfriendliness predicted a higher quality cat-owner relationship; meanness and boldness predicted a lower quality relationship. Findings provide insight into the structure of triarchic psychopathy in cats.
... Cats are also sensitive to human vocalizations. Cats distinguish between the voices of their owners and strangers (Saito and Shinozuka, 2013). Cats participating in a habituationdishabituation test showed a decreasing response when strangers' voices continued and increasing head and ear movements when hearing their owner's voice. ...
Whilst humans undisputedly shape and transform most of earth's habitats, the number of animals (domestic and wild) living on this planet far outnumbers that of humans. Inevitably, humans have to interact with animals under a variety of circumstances, such as during conservation efforts, wildlife and zoo management, livestock husbandry, and pet keeping. Next to the question of how humans deal with these interactions and conflicts, it is crucial to understand the animal's point of view:
How do animals perceive and differentiate between humans?
How do they generalize their behavior towards humans?
And how does knowledge about humans spread socially?
In this Research Topic, we aim to collect original empirical work and review articles to get a more comprehensive and diverse picture on how humans are part of the sensory and cognitive world of non-human animals. We strongly invite contributions that pinpoint shortcomings and limitations in interpreting the available research findings, that provide new cross-disciplinary frameworks (e.g. links between conservation biology and comparative psychology, or human-animal interactions at zoos and animal welfare) and that discuss the applied implementation of these findings (e.g. for conservation attempts or livestock husbandry management).
Simple Summary
The cognitive health of cats is closely related to their well-being and quality of life. Feline cognition encompasses cats’ ability to receive, process, and respond to sensory information. Although research surrounding feline cognition has been increasing in recent years and has led to novel discoveries about cats’ cognitive abilities, there is still much to be learned about this topic. This review discusses the evolutionary history of the domestic cat and how it became a beloved companion animal, describes what is known about cats’ cognitive function based on groundbreaking research and cognitive evaluations, and investigates the impact of nutrition on cognitive health, particularly age-related cognitive decline. By considering what is currently known about the mental health of cats and how their cognition is affected by external factors, and by identifying and narrowing gaps in our knowledge, we can help improve the welfare of and quality of life of cats.
Abstract
Research into cognition in cats and the impact of nutrition on cat cognitive health lags behind that in dogs but is receiving increased attention. In this review, we discuss the evolutionary history of the domesticated cat, describe possible drivers of domestication, and explore the interrelationships between nutrition and cat cognition. While most cat species are solitary, domesticated cats can live in social groups, engage in complex social encounters, and form strong attachments to humans. Researchers have recently started to study cat cognition using similar methods as those developed for dogs, with an initial primary focus on perception and social cognition. Similar to dogs, cats also show cognitive and behavioral changes associated with stress and aging, but these signs are often gradual and often considered a consequence of natural aging. Despite the fundamental role of nutrition in cognitive development, function, and maintenance, research into the association between nutrition and cognition in cats is only preliminary. Ultimately, additional research is needed to gain a full understanding of cat cognition and to explore the role of nutrition in the cognitive health of cats to help improve their welfare.
Cat social behaviour and cognition has received a growing interest during the last decades. Recent studies reported that cats efficiently engage in interspecific communication with humans and suggest that cats are sensitive to human emotional visual and auditory cues. To date, there is no evidence on the social and informative role of human emotional odours, which may affect human-cat communication. In this study, we presented cats with human odours collected in different emotional contexts (fear, happiness, physical stress and neutral) and evaluated the animals’ behavioural responses. We found that “fear” odours elicited higher stress levels than “physical stress” and “neutral”, suggesting that cats perceived the valence of the information conveyed by “fear” olfactory signals and regulate their behaviour accordingly. Moreover, the prevalent use of the right nostril (right hemisphere activation) with the increase of stress levels, particularly in response to “fear” odours, provides first evidence of lateralized emotional functions of olfactory pathways in cats.
Simple Summary
Dogs can learn how to solve problems by watching humans. However, whether this is also true for cats, which are also companion animals, is unknown. In this study, three experiments were used to investigate whether cats could change their behaviour and gain rewards efficiently by observing a human demonstrating how to obtain food. We found no evidence that observing human behaviour enabled more efficient problem-solving by cats or caused them to change their behaviours. Other than their learning ability, the biological characteristics of cats and the experimental context may have contributed towards the present negative results.
Abstract
Humans learn by observing the behaviour of others, which can lead to more efficient problem-solving than by trial-and-error learning. Numerous studies have shown that animals, other than humans, are also capable of social learning. Dogs, as humans’ closest companion animals, can learn to obtain rewards following behavioural demonstrations by humans. However, it is not known whether cats, who also live with humans, can learn how to solve problems by observing human behaviours. Three experiments were used to investigate whether cats could change their behaviour and gain rewards efficiently by observing a human demonstrating how to obtain food. In Experiment 1, a human demonstrated how to open a transparent drawer and take out the reward inside, but cats did not significantly follow the same method as the human. In Experiment 2a, a transparent tube device was used to make the operation easier for cats. However, cats were not influenced by the human behaviour. As the devices used in these experiments were transparent, meaning that the cats could see the food inside directly, they might have required strong inhibitory control. Therefore, in Experiment 2b the tube device was made opaque, and cats again observed the human demonstration. Nevertheless, the cats were not influenced by the human’s behaviour. The results of these experiments indicate a lack of social learning, including imitation, from human behaviours in cats, at least in these experimental settings with food rewards. Other than their inherent ability, cats’ biological characteristics and the experimental context may have contributed towards the negative results.
Dans une société où les animaux compagnons sont intégrés au cercle familial, beaucoup d’humains les considèrent comme des membres de la famille à part entière. La recherche doit suivre cette tendance et s’attacher à appréhender les mécanismes de relations qui se construisent entre différentes espèces amenées à cohabiter. L’objectif de cette thèse est d’enrichir et d’approfondir les connaissances scientifiques sur l’éthologie du chat compagnon (Felis catus), afin de mieux appréhender ses besoins et réponses comportementales, au sein d’un environnement souvent imposé par l’humain. Les travaux restitués sont principalement centrés sur la communication interspécifique entre l’humain et le chat. Soucieux d’explorer aussi bien la perspective de l’humain que celle du chat, nous avons étudié la façon dont chacun s’exprime et décode les messages de l’autre. Ainsi, nous nous sommes intéressés à la communication vocale et visuelle entre ces deux espèces différentes qui partagent un même milieu - et doivent apprendre à communiquer efficacement pour cohabiter sereinement. Nos études ont mis en évidence que les humains utilisaient un discours spécifique pour s’adresser à leur compagnons félins, caractérisé par l’utilisation d’une voix plus aiguë. Nous avons également rapporté que les chats étaient plus attentifs à ce type de discours, mais seulement lorsqu’il était prononcé par leur compagnon humain et non par un étranger. Dans une troisième étude, nous avons observé que les chats venaient plus volontiers au contact d’un humain peu familier si celui-ci proposait un contact bimodal ou visuel, plutôt que vocal. Enfin, nous avons vu que les humains comprenaient mieux les chats dans leurs expressions bimodales et visuelles que vocales. Ainsi, bien que communément utilisée par chaque émetteur de cette communication interspécifique, la modalité vocale ne semble pas être suffisante pour la transmission et la réception d’un signal clair. Ces résultats sont discutés à la lumière des notions d’attachement, d’anthropomorphisme et de bien-être animal.
Across all species, a dyadic interaction entails that an emitter sends signals to a receiver through one or more channels. The receiver decodes the signals and reacts accordingly, potentially turning into an emitter himself. Like dogs and horses, cats can integrate visual and auditory signals sent by humans and modulate their behaviour according to the valence of the emotion perceived. However, the specific patterns and channels governing cat-to-human communication are poorly understood. This study addresses whether, in an extraspecific interaction, cats adapt their communication channel to those used by their human interlocutor. We examined three types of interactions: vocal, visual and bimodal (visual plus vocal), through coding video clips of 12 cats living in cat cafés. There was a significant effect of the modality of communication on the latency for cats to approach the human experimenter. Cats interacted significantly faster in the visual and bimodal compared to the “no communication” pattern as well as to the vocal condition. There was a significant effect of communication modality on the tail wagging behaviour. Cats significantly displayed more tail wagging when the experimenter engaged no communication compared to the visual and bimodal conditions. Cats also displayed more tail wagging in the vocal compared to the bimodal condition. Taken together, these results suggest that cats display a marked preference for both visual and bimodal cues addressed by non-familiar humans, over vocal cues only. Our data bring further evidence for the emergence of human-compatible socio-cognitive skills in cats, that favour their adaptation to a human driven niche.
Vocalization may transmit information from the emitting animal, including information about his or her emotional state. This study aimed to compare the vocal and behavioral responses of domestic cats during an aversive and a pleasant situation. A total of 74 cats (29 males and 45 females) in the city of Curitiba, Southern Brazil, participated in the study; 68 (26 males and 42 females) were divided into two treatments: an aversive situation (AS), which was a car transport event where the cat was in a crate, or a pleasant situation (PS), where the cat was were offered a snack. The other animals (three males and three females) participated in both situations. Behavioral signals and individual vocalizations were registered through video recordings and further evaluated in each scenario. Cats in the PS had a higher fundamental frequency of vocalizations (10.1%), a lower range of pitches (tessitura) (33.9%) and twice the rate of head movement rates as compared to AS. For call duration there was significant interaction between treatment and sex. Additionally, there were differences in vocal parameters and behavioral signals due to sex, age and coat color. Females and kittens have higher fundamental frequencies may be due to anatomical characteristics. Solid-colored coated cats presented higher fundamental frequency than other coat colors. Overall, vocal parameters and behavioral signals seem useful indicators for studying the emotions of cats in different situations. Further studies are warranted to understand the subtleties of cat vocalization across sex, age and coat color.
Cats are unique amongst domestic species in that they have evolved from a solitary ancestral species to become one of the most beloved household pets today. Interestingly the cat's physical appearance and sensory systems remain almost identical to their wild counterparts. Recognition of the perceptual parameters allows us to better understand how the domestic cat responds to environment and communicates with social partners. Sociality is unequivocally the aspect of feline life most affected by the domestication process. Cats can display a wide range of social behaviors, and evidence indicates that early exposure to a variety of social and environmental stimuli is the most important postnatal factor for a well‐adjusted life in a domestic setting and resiliency to basic stressors. By gaining an understanding of feline natural behavior, communication, learning, and cognition, shelter staff can provide cats with an ideal environment, change unwanted behaviors, and improve the welfare of our cats.
Humans communicate with each other through language, which enables us talk about things beyond time and space. Do non-human animals learn to associate human speech with specific objects in everyday life? We examined whether cats matched familiar cats’ names and faces (Exp.1) and human family members’ names and faces (Exp.2). Cats were presented with a photo of the familiar cat’s face on a laptop monitor after hearing the same cat’s name or another cat’s name called by the subject cat’s owner (Exp.1) or an experimenter (Exp.2). Half of the trials were in a congruent condition where the name and face matched, and half were in an incongruent (mismatch) condition. Results of Exp.1 showed that household cats paid attention to the monitor for longer in the incongruent condition, suggesting an expectancy violation effect; however, café cats did not. In Exp.2, cats living in larger human families were found to look at the monitor for increasingly longer durations in the incongruent condition. Furthermore, this tendency was stronger among cats that had lived with their human family for a longer time, although we could not rule out an effect of age. This study provides evidence that cats link a companion's name and corresponding face without explicit training.
Background research
Phytotherapy, using olfactory enrichment, is often overlooked as a method of environmental enrichment for domestic cats. The most common example of olfactory enrichment to elicit a calming response, uses Valerian Root, which is researched to also cause an apparent euphoric response in cats. It is important that enrichment is considered to allow the cats to exhibit natural behaviours which can reduce stress and destructive behaviours. Thus, this article will explore the effectiveness of Pet Remedy’s Calming spray and the behaviours cat’s exhibit.
Methodology
Furthering the existing research which was initially undertaken, Pet Remedy’s Calming Spray was tested on 44 domestic cats to observe their responses. All cats were blindly offered exposure to Pet Remedy and a control sample at random. The number of interactions were recorded onto behavioural ethograms. All cats had 30 minutes to acclimatise to the researcher and had at least a four-hour washout period between both exposures.
Results
The statistical analysis of data gathered was computed using IBM SPSS Statistics 25 in form of; a Freidman’s test, Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Tests, Descriptive Statistics and Spearman’s rank-order tests. The mean number of interactions amongst Pet Remedy and the control sample were computed to find that Pet Remedy’s Calming spray had a mean number of interactions of 18.09.
Conclusions
This study suggests that olfactory enrichment using Pet Remedy’s Calming Spray corresponds an effective means to induce a calming response.
Research into cat behavior has gained more attention in recent years. As one of the world’s most popular companion animals, work in this field has potential to have wide-reaching benefits. Cats living in shelters are posed with distinct welfare concerns. Shelter cat welfare can be increased through use of environmental enrichment to promote natural behaviors. This review focuses on relevant literature published to date on shelter cat enrichment. Several key areas of research were identified. These included sensory enrichment, feeding enrichment, physical enrichment, social enrichment, and assessments to determine cat preference for enrichment stimuli. Existing studies have examined the efficacy of enrichment to promote species-specific behaviors and to reduce stress in shelter cats. Studies have also explored housing conditions for shelter cats such as cage size, communal housing, or the general quality of the environment. Applications of this information are discussed in order to promote natural cat behavior and find ways to increase the welfare of shelter cats. A review of the literature highlights the importance of supplying novel items in shelter environments, providing a rotation of individually preferred items, the use of human social interaction as a way to increase interactive behaviors in shelter cats, and the importance of considering potentially aversive impacts of enrichment under certain situations.
Previous research has shown that human adults can easily discriminate 2 individual zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) by their signature songs, struggle to discriminate 2 individual rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) by their calls, and are unable to discriminate 2 individual dogs (Canis familiaris) by their barks. The purpose of the present experiment was to examine whether acoustic discrimination of individual nonprimate heterospecifics is limited to species producing stereotyped signature songs or whether it is possible with the vocalizations of other species as well. This was tested here with the calls of individual large-billed crows (Corvus macrorhynchos) and the meows of individual domestic cats (Felis catus) using a forced-choice same-different paradigm. Results show a high discrimination accuracy without prior training, although the scores obtained here for both species were lower than those in the zebra finch discrimination task. Discrimination accuracy of cat voices decreased when mean pitch was equalized between individuals but was still possible without this cue. The removal of formant frequencies did not influence the discrimination, and there was no significant performance improvement across trials. These experiments suggest that individual acoustic discrimination is possible not only with species producing signature songs but also with unlearned vocalizations of both birds and nonhuman mammals.
Since the observations of O. Pfungst the use of human-provided cues by animals has been well-known in the behavioural sciences ("Clever Hans effect"). It has recently been shown that rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) are unable to use the direction of gazing by the experimenter as a cue for finding food, although after some training they learned to respond to pointing by hand. Direction of gaze is used by chimpanzees, however. Dogs (Canis familiaris) are believed to be sensitive to human gestural communication but their ability has never been formally tested. In three experiments we examined whether dogs can respond to cues given by humans. We found that dogs are able to utilize pointing, bowing, nodding, head-turning and glancing gestures of humans as cues for finding hidden food. Dogs were also able to generalize from one person (owner) to another familiar person (experimenter) in using the same gestures as cues. Baseline trials were run to test the possibility that odour cues alone could be responsible for the dogs' performance. During training individual performance showed limited variability, probably because some dogs already "knew" some of the cues from their earlier experiences with humans. We suggest that the phenomenon of dogs responding to cues given by humans is better analysed as a case of interspecific communication than in terms of discrimination learning.
The social behaviour of many species of non-human primates suggests a capacity for both individual and kin recognition. In these species, the ability to signal and perceive identity at a distance may be an important adaptation facilitating intra-group social communication. Variation in vocalizations is hypothesized to provide a basis for this ability. Playback experiments were conducted to test for vocal recognition of contact calls between adult female rhesus macaques,Macaca mulatta. Single-trial playbacks of the contact call of either a matrilineal relative or a familiar, non-relative group member were used to test for discrimination of kin from non-kin. Females responded significantly faster and longer to the contact calls of matrilineal relatives. A habituation–discrimination paradigm was then used to test for individual recognition. Females habituated to successive presentations of different exemplars of the contact calls of one matrilineal relative, then showed a significant rebound in response to the subsequent presentation of a contact call from a second matrilineal relative. These results indicate an ability for vocal recognition of both individuals and kin. Females' responses to playbacks suggested the additional possibility for categorical recognition of matrilineal kinship, or its correlates.
The possible relationship between companion animal behavior and owner attachment levels has received surprisingly little attention in the literature on human-companion animal interactions, despite its relevance to our understanding of the potential benefits of pet ownership, and the problems associated with pet loss, or the premature abandonment and disposal of companion animals. The present study describes a preliminary investigation of this topic involving a questionnaire survey of 37 dog owners and 47 cat owners exactly 1 year after they acquired pets from animal shelters. The results demonstrate a number of highly significant differences in owners' assessments of the behavior of dogs and cats, particularly with respect to playfulness (Mann-Whitney U Test, P = 0.125), confidence (P < 0.001), affection (P = 0.002), excitability (P = 0.018), activity (P = 0.002), friendliness to strangers (P < 0.001), intelligence (P = 0.02), and owner-directed aggression (P = 0.002). However, few differences were noted between dog and cat owners in terms of their perceptions of what constitutes ‘ideal’ pet behavior. The findings also suggest that dog owners who report weaker attachments for their pets are consistently less satisfied with most aspects of their dogs' behavior compared with those who report stronger attachments. Weakly attached cat owners are significantly more dissatisfied with the levels of affection shown by their pets (P = 0.0186), but in other respects they are far less consistent than dog owners.
Recent evidence indicates that dogs’ sociocognitive abilities and behaviour in a test situation are shaped
by both genetic factors and life experiences. We used the ‘unsolvable task’ paradigm to investigate the
effect of breed and age/experience on the use of human-directed gazing behaviour. Following a genetic
classification based on recent genome analyses, dogs were allocated to three breed groups, namely
Primitive, Hunting/Herding and Molossoid. Furthermore, we tested dogs at 2 months, 4.5 months and as
adults. The test consisted of three solvable trials in which dogs could obtain food by manipulating
a plastic container followed by an unsolvable trial in which obtaining the food became impossible. The
dogs’ behaviour towards the apparatus and the people present was analysed. At 2 months no breed
group differences emerged and although human-directed gazing behaviour was observed in approximately
half of the pups, it occurred for brief periods, suggesting that the aptitude to use human-directed
gazing as a request for obtaining help probably develops at a later date when dogs have had more
experience with human communication. Breed group differences, however, did emerge strongly in adult
dogs and, although less pronounced, also in 4.5-month-old subjects, with dogs in the Hunting/Herding
group showing significantly more human-directed gazing behaviour than dogs in the other two breed
groups. These results suggest that, although the domestication process may have shaped the dog’s
human-directed communicative abilities, the later selection for specific types of work might also have
had a significant impact on their emergence.
It has recently been shown that some non-human animals can cross-modally recognize members of their own taxon. What is unclear is just how plastic this recognition system can be. In this study, we investigate whether an animal, the domestic horse, is capable of spontaneous cross-modal recognition of individuals from a morphologically very different species. We also provide the first insights into how cross-modal identity information is processed by examining whether there are hemispheric biases in this important social skill. In our preferential looking paradigm, subjects were presented with two people and playbacks of their voices to determine whether they were able to match the voice with the person. When presented with familiar handlers subjects could match the specific familiar person with the correct familiar voice. Horses were significantly better at performing the matching task when the congruent person was standing on their right, indicating marked hemispheric specialization (left hemisphere bias) in this ability. These results are the first to demonstrate that cross-modal recognition in animals can extend to individuals from phylogenetically very distant species. They also indicate that processes governed by the left hemisphere are central to the cross-modal matching of visual and auditory information from familiar individuals in a naturalistic setting.
Artificial selection is the selection of advantageous natural variation for human ends and is the mechanism by which most domestic species evolved. Most domesticates have their origin in one of a few historic centers of domestication as farm animals. Two notable exceptions are cats and dogs. Wolf domestication was initiated late in the Mesolithic when humans were nomadic hunter-gatherers. Those wolves less afraid of humans scavenged nomadic hunting camps and over time developed utility, initially as guards warning of approaching animals or other nomadic bands and soon thereafter as hunters, an attribute tuned by artificial selection. The first domestic cats had limited utility and initiated their domestication among the earliest agricultural Neolithic settlements in the Near East. Wildcat domestication occurred through a self-selective process in which behavioral reproductive isolation evolved as a correlated character of assortative mating coupled to habitat choice for urban environments. Eurasian wildcats initiated domestication and their evolution to companion animals was initially a process of natural, rather than artificial, selection over time driven during their sympatry with forbear wildcats.
Dogs have a unique ability to understand visual cues from humans. We investigated whether dogs can discriminate between human facial expressions. Photographs of human faces were used to test nine pet dogs in two-choice discrimination tasks. The training phases involved each dog learning to discriminate between a set of photographs of their owner's smiling and blank face. Of the nine dogs, five fulfilled these criteria and were selected for test sessions. In the test phase, 10 sets of photographs of the owner's smiling and blank face, which had previously not been seen by the dog, were presented. The dogs selected the owner's smiling face significantly more often than expected by chance. In subsequent tests, 10 sets of smiling and blank face photographs of 20 persons unfamiliar to the dogs were presented (10 males and 10 females). There was no statistical difference between the accuracy in the case of the owners and that in the case of unfamiliar persons with the same gender as the owner. However, the accuracy was significantly lower in the case of unfamiliar persons of the opposite gender to that of the owner, than with the owners themselves. These results suggest that dogs can learn to discriminate human smiling faces from blank faces by looking at photographs. Although it remains unclear whether dogs have human-like systems for visual processing of human facial expressions, the ability to learn to discriminate human facial expressions may have helped dogs adapt to human society.
Despite widespread interest in inter-specific communication, few studies have examined the abilities of companion animals to communicate with humans in what has become their natural environment — the human home [1
• Nicastro N.
• Owren M.J.
Classification of domestic cat (Felis catus) vocalisations by naive and experienced human listeners.J. Comp. Psychol. 2003; 117: 44-52
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• Pongracz P.
• Molnar C.
• Miklosi A.
Acoustic parameters of dog barks carry emotional information for humans.Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 2006; 100: 228-240
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]. Here we report how domestic cats make subtle use of one of their most characteristic vocalisations — purring — to solicit food from their human hosts, apparently exploiting sensory biases that humans have for providing care. When humans were played purrs recorded while cats were actively seeking food at equal amplitude to purrs recorded in non-solicitation contexts, even individuals with no experience of owning cats judged the ‘solicitation’ purrs to be more urgent and less pleasant. Embedded within the naturally low-pitched purr, we found a high frequency voiced component, reminiscent of a cry or meow, that was crucial in determining urgency and pleasantness ratings. Moreover, when we re-synthesised solicitation purrs to remove only the voiced component, paired presentations revealed that these purrs were perceived as being significantly less urgent. We discuss how the structure of solicitation purrs may be exploiting an inherent mammalian sensitivity to acoustic cues relevant in the context of nurturing offspring.
Recent habituation literature is reviewed with emphasis on neuro-physiological studies. The hindlimb flexion reflex of the acute spinal cat is used as a model system for analysis of the neuronal mechanisms involved in habituation and sensitization (i.e., dishabituation). Habituation of this response is demonstrated to follow the same 9 parametric relations for stimulus and training variables characteristic of behavioral response habituation in the intact organism. Habituation and sensitization appear to be central neural processes and probably do not involve presynaptic or postsynaptic inhibition. It is suggested that they may result from the interaction of neural processes resembling "polysynaptic low-frequency depression," and "facilitatory afterdischarge." "Membrane desensitization" may play a role in long-lasting habituation. (6 p. ref.)
Mitochondrial DNA control region sequences were analyzed from 162 wolves at 27 localities worldwide and from 140 domestic
dogs representing 67 breeds. Sequences from both dogs and wolves showed considerable diversity and supported the hypothesis
that wolves were the ancestors of dogs. Most dog sequences belonged to a divergent monophyletic clade sharing no sequences
with wolves. The sequence divergence within this clade suggested that dogs originated more than 100,000 years before the present.
Associations of dog haplotypes with other wolf lineages indicated episodes of admixture between wolves and dogs. Repeated
genetic exchange between dog and wolf populations may have been an important source of variation for artificial selection.
Fifty-one owner-dog pairs were observed in a modified version of M. D. S. Ainsworth's (1969) Strange Situation Test. The results demonstrate that adult dogs (Canis familiaris) show patterns of attachment behavior toward the owner. Although there was considerable variability in dogs' attachment behavior to humans, the authors did not find any effect of gender, age, living conditions, or breed on most of the behavioral variables. The human-dog relationship was described by means of a factor analysis in a 3-dimensional factor space: Anxiety, Acceptance, and Attachment. A cluster analysis revealed 5 substantially different classes of dogs, and dogs could be categorized along the secure-insecure attached dimensions of Ainsworth's original test. A dog's relationship to humans is analogous to child-parent and chimpanzee-human attachment behavior because the observed behavioral phenomena and the classification are similar to those described in mother-infant interactions.
On the basis of a study by D. J. Povinelli, D. T. Bierschwale, and C. G. Cech (1999), the performance of family dogs (Canis familiaris) was examined in a 2-way food choice task in which 4 types of directional cues were given by the experimenter: pointing and gazing, head-nodding ("at target"), head turning above the correct container ("above target"), and glancing only ("eyes only"). The results showed that the performance of the dogs resembled more closely that of the children in D. J. Povinelli et al.'s study, in contrast to the chimpanzees' performance in the same study. It seems that dogs, like children, interpret the test situation as being a form of communication. The hypothesis is that this similarity is attributable to the social experience and acquired social routines in dogs because they spend more time in close contact with humans than apes do, and as a result dogs are probably more experienced in the recognition of human gestures.
In a series of 3 experiments, dogs (Canis familiaris) were presented with variations of the human pointing gesture: gestures with reversed direction of movement, cross-pointing, and different arm extensions. Dogs performed at above chance level if they could see the hand (and index finger) protruding from the human body contour. If these minimum requirements were not accessible, dogs still could rely on the body position of the signaler. The direction of movement of the pointing arm did not influence the performance. In summary, these observations suggest that dogs are able to rely on relatively novel gestural forms of the human communicative pointing gesture and that they are able to comprehend to some extent the referential nature of human pointing.
Dogs are more skillful than great apes at a number of tasks in which they must read human communicative signals indicating the location of hidden food. In this study, we found that wolves who were raised by humans do not show these same skills, whereas domestic dog puppies only a few weeks old, even those that have had little human contact, do show these skills. These findings suggest that during the process of domestication, dogs have been selected for a set of social-cognitive abilities that enable them to communicate with humans in unique ways.
The origin of the domestic dog from wolves has been established, but the number of founding events, as well as where and when
these occurred, is not known. To address these questions, we examined the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence variation among
654 domestic dogs representing all major dog populations worldwide. Although our data indicate several maternal origins from
wolf, >95% of all sequences belonged to three phylogenetic groups universally represented at similar frequencies, suggesting
a common origin from a single gene pool for all dog populations. A larger genetic variation in East Asia than in other regions
and the pattern of phylogeographic variation suggest an East Asian origin for the domestic dog, ∼15,000 years ago.
Twelve domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) were given a series of trials in which they were forbidden to take a piece of visible food. In some trials, the human continued to look at the dog throughout the trial (control condition), whereas in others, the human (a) left the room, (b) turned her back, (c) engaged in a distracting activity, or (d) closed her eyes. Dogs behaved in clearly different ways in most of the conditions in which the human did not watch them compared with the control condition, in which she did. In particular, when the human looked at them, dogs retrieved less food, approached it in a more indirect way, and sat (as opposed to laid down) more often than in the other conditions. Results are discussed in terms of domestic dogs' social-cognitive skills and their unique evolutionary and ontogenetic histories.
The ability of animals to use behavioral/facial cues in detection of human attention has been widely investigated. In this test series we studied the ability of dogs to recognize human attention in different experimental situations (ball-fetching game, fetching objects on command, begging from humans). The attentional state of the humans was varied along two variables: (1) facing versus not facing the dog; (2) visible versus non-visible eyes. In the first set of experiments (fetching) the owners were told to take up different body positions (facing or not facing the dog) and to either cover or not cover their eyes with a blindfold. In the second set of experiments (begging) dogs had to choose between two eating humans based on either the visibility of the eyes or direction of the face. Our results show that the efficiency of dogs to discriminate between "attentive" and "inattentive" humans depended on the context of the test, but they could rely on the orientation of the body, the orientation of the head and the visibility of the eyes. With the exception of the fetching-game situation, they brought the object to the front of the human (even if he/she turned his/her back towards the dog), and preferentially begged from the facing (or seeing) human. There were also indications that dogs were sensitive to the visibility of the eyes because they showed increased hesitative behavior when approaching a blindfolded owner, and they also preferred to beg from the person with visible eyes. We conclude that dogs are able to rely on the same set of human facial cues for detection of attention, which form the behavioral basis of understanding attention in humans. Showing the ability of recognizing human attention across different situations dogs proved to be more flexible than chimpanzees investigated in similar circumstances.
It is generally accepted that cats were first domesticated in ancient Egypt ([ 1 ][1]–[ 3 ][2]), at the latest by the 20th to 19th century B.C. (Middle Kingdom, 12th dynasty) ([ 4 ][3]). However, several finds from Cyprus suggest that the origins of cat taming were earlier. A cat mandible at the
According to the social intelligence hypothesis, social context represents an important force driving the selection of animal cognitive abilities such as the capacity to estimate the nature of the social relationships between other individuals. Despite this importance, the influence of this force has been assessed only in primates and never in other animals showing social interactions. In this way, avian communication generally takes place in a network of signallers and receivers, which represents an audience altering individual signalling behaviours. Indeed, vocal amplitude and repertoire are known to be socially regulated and the attitude towards the opposite sex may change depending on the audience. This 'audience effect' provides support for the reality of social awareness in some bird species. However no evidence has yet been found to suggest that birds are able to estimate the characteristics of the social relationships between group-mates. Here we show that the male of a gregarious songbird species--the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata)--pays attention to the mating status of conspecific pairs, and uses this information to control its behaviour towards its female partner.
To test for possible anthropogenic selection effects on meows in domestic felids, vocalizations by domestic cats (Felis catus) were compared with cries by their closest wild relative, the African wild cat (Felis silvestris lybica). Comparisons included analysis of acoustic characteristics and perceptual studies with human (Homo sapiens) listeners. The perceptual studies obtained human listener ratings of call pleasantness. Both the acoustic and perceptual comparisons revealed clear species-level differences: The domestic cat meows were significantly shorter in mean duration than the wild cat meows, showed higher mean formant frequencies, and exhibited higher mean fundamental frequencies. Human listeners at all levels of experience and affinity for cats rated domestic cat meows as far more pleasant sounding than wild cat vocalizations. These results are consistent with a model of cat domestication that posits selective pressure on meows based on human perceptual biases.
Dogs' (Canis familiaris) and cats' (Felis catus) interspecific communicative behavior toward humans was investigated. In Experiment 1, the ability of dogs and cats to use human pointing gestures in an object-choice task was compared using 4 types of pointing cues differing in distance between the signaled object and the end of the fingertip and in visibility duration of the given signal. Using these gestures, both dogs and cats were able to find the hidden food; there was no significant difference in their performance. In Experiment 2, the hidden food was made inaccessible to the subjects to determine whether they could indicate the place of the hidden food to a naive owner. Cats lacked some components of attention-getting behavior compared with dogs. The results suggest that individual familiarization with pointing gestures ensures high-level performance in the presence of such gestures; however, species-specific differences could cause differences in signaling toward the human.
Sixteen domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) were tested in a familiar context in a series of 1-min trials on how well they obeyed after being told by their owner to lie down. Food was used in 1/3 of all trials, and during the trial the owner engaged in 1 of 5 activities. The dogs behaved differently depending on the owner's attention to them. When being watched by the owner, the dogs stayed lying down most often and/or for the longest time compared with when the owner read a book, watched TV, turned his or her back on them, or left the room. These results indicate that the dogs sensed the attentional state of their owners by judging observable behavioral cues such as eye contact and eye, head, and body orientation.
The world's domestic cats carry patterns of sequence variation in their genome that reflect a history of domestication and
breed development. A genetic assessment of 979 domestic cats and their wild progenitors—Felis silvestris silvestris (European wildcat), F. s. lybica (Near Eastern wildcat), F. s. ornata (central Asian wildcat), F. s. cafra (southern African wildcat), and F. s. bieti (Chinese desert cat)—indicated that each wild group represents a distinctive subspecies of Felis silvestris. Further analysis revealed that cats were domesticated in the Near East, probably coincident with agricultural village development
in the Fertile Crescent. Domestic cats derive from at least five founders from across this region, whose descendants were
transported across the world by human assistance.
The effects of handling during the socialisation period on the subsequent development of behaviour problems and the cat–owner bond have been investigated in kittens homed from rescue centres. Thirty-seven kittens in three centres were given either standard socialisation or enhanced socialisation between 2 and 9 weeks of age. All kittens were then homed, and their owners were interviewed when they were approximately 1-year-old. Owners of additionally socialised kittens reported significantly higher emotional support from their cats, and fewer of these cats exhibited behaviour indicative of fear of humans, compared to cats that had received standard socialisation.
The special relationship that dogs have developed with humans has been studied not only from the social sciences perspective, but also from the perspectives of psychology and human medicine. Recently, in cognitive science, it has been suggested that dogs may have acquired the superior cognitive ability to communicate with humans, particularly using human-like visual cues during evolution, and that emotional bonding has developed between humans and dogs by means of similar social cues. This article discusses the biological aspects of human-dog attachment. Attachment requires the distinction of a specific figure using species-specific social cues and specific responses to the figure, brought about by neuroendocrinological homeostatic functions as well as behavioral aspects. It has been shown that dogs can distinguish a particular human figure (e.g. the owner) and exhibit specific autonomic reactions. Moreover, when dogs gaze at their owners, the latter's urinary oxytocin levels increase after the interaction. This understanding of the biological aspect of interspecies attachment suggests the possible elements that form the basis of cross-species empathy and the development of evolutionary cognitive abilities that may depend on not merely their genetic dendrogram.
During the period of reproduction red deer stags gather harems and roar loudly and repeatedly, both toward competing stags and toward the hinds that they actively herd. It has been proposed that red deer hinds may actively choose their mate on the basis of a comparison of the roaring rate of competing stags. Hinds may also choose to mate with the male that is most familiar to them, i.e. that male who spent most time and effort in retaining them within his harem and in roaring at them. Such a mechanism of female choice implies that females are able to discriminate individual characteristics in the stags’ roars. We investigated this possibility by conducting playback experiments based on the habituation–discrimination paradigm. Our results show that hinds are able to discriminate between the roars of their current harem-holder stag and those of other neighbouring stags and suggest that this ability, a necessity for individual recognition, may be important in female mate choice in red deer.
Little is known about the role of specific acoustic cues in mammal vocal communication systems. In the current study, we used resynthesized male red deer roars in a habituation–discrimination paradigm to determine whether female red deer are sensitive to shifts in formant frequencies corresponding to the natural variation between the vocal tract lengths of a small and large adult red deer male. Hinds habituated to a given size variant showed a significant dishabituation when they were presented with roars in which the formants had been modified to simulate the other size variant. The significant reduction in behavioural response to a final rehabituation playback showed this was not a chance rebound in response levels. Our results suggest that formants are salient for red deer hinds and that hinds can detect a shift in formant frequencies that may have biological significance. We discuss the possible functions of formant perception in female red deer and more generally in nonhuman mammals.
Research on acoustic communication has often focused on signalling between territorial individuals or static neighbouring groups. Under these circumstances, receivers have the opportunity to learn to recognize the signals only of the limited number of conspecifics with which they are in auditory contact. In some mammals, however, social units move freely with respect to one another and range widely, providing individuals with opportunities to learn to recognize the signals of a wide range of conspecifics in addition to those of their immediate neighbours. We conducted playback experiments on African elephants,Loxodonta africana , in Amboseli National Park, Kenya, to determine the extent to which adult female elephants, which have a highly fluid social system, can recognize others in the population through infrasonic contact calls. Female elephants could distinguish the calls of female family and bond group members from those of females outside of these categories; moreover, they could also discriminate between the calls of family units further removed than bond group members, on the basis of how frequently they encountered them. We estimated that subjects would have to be familiar with the contact calls of a mean of 14 families in the population (containing around 100 adult females in total), in order to perform these discriminations. Female elephants thus appear to have unusually extensive networks of vocal recognition, which may prove to be typical of long-lived species that have both fluid social systems and the means for long-distance vocal communication.
Screams of free-ranging juvenile vervet monkeys were played to a group containing their mothers and two ‘control’ females who also had offspring in the group. Mothers and controls were separated from their offspring at the time. Mothers' responses showed significantly shorter latency and longer duration than controls'; mothers were also significantly more likely to approach the speaker. Playbacks significantly increased the probability that controls would look at the mother; a majority of controls did so without any apparent cue from the mother. Results demonstrate that adult female vervets can distinguish their offsprings' screams from those of other immatures, and they suggest that vervets are able to associate specific screams with specific individuals and these individuals with their mothers.
Ten domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) of different breeds and ages were exposed to 2 different social cues indicating the location of hidden food, each provided by both a human informant and a conspecific informant (for a total of 4 different social cues). For the local enhancement cue, the informant approached the location where food was hidden and then stayed beside it. For the gaze and point cue, the informant stood equidistant between 2 hiding locations and bodily oriented and gazed toward the 1 in which food was hidden (the human informant also pointed). Eight of the 10 subjects, including the one 6-month-old juvenile, were above chance with 2 or more cues. Results are discussed in terms of the phylogenetic and ontogenetic processes by means of which dogs come to use social cues to locate food.
Oxytocin (OT) has been shown to play an important role in social bonding in animals. However, it is unclear whether OT is related to inter-species social bonding. In this study, to examine the possibility that urinary OT concentrations of owners were increased by their "dog's gaze", perhaps representing social attachment to their owners, we measured urinary OT concentrations of owners before and after interaction with their dogs. Dog owners interacted with their dogs as usual for 30 min (interaction experiment) or were instructed not to look at their dogs directly (control experiment). We observed the behaviors of owners and their dogs during the experiments, and measured OT concentrations by radioimmunoassay in urine samples from the owners collected just before and 20 min after interaction with their dogs. Using a cluster analysis, owners could be divided into two groups: one received a longer duration of gaze from their dogs and reported a higher degree of relationship with their dogs (LG); the other received a shorter duration of gaze and reported a lower degree of relationship (SG). Urinary OT was higher in LG than SG after usual interaction with their dogs, but not in the control experiment. In the interaction experiment, a high correlation was found in LG between the frequency of behavioral exchanges initiated by the dog's gaze and the increase in urinary OT. We conclude that interactions with dogs, especially those initiated by the dog's gaze, can increase the urinary OT concentrations of their owners as a manifestation of attachment behavior.
Comparative behavioural observations were made in the home setting in order to analyze the ethology of the human-cat relationship. Factors postulated, and indeed, found to influence that relationship included marital status of the human (women living alone, with a partner or with a partner and children), housing conditions of the cat (indoor vs. outdoor access), number of cats kept (one vs. more than one), and to a very minor extent, pedigree of the cat (purebred vs. domestic mixture). Various measures of success at both the interactional, and the relationship level were examined and yielded the following results: 1) The more successful the person is in initiating interactions with the cat, the shorter, the total interaction time with the pet. 2) The higher the proportion of all successful intents to interact that were due to the cat, the more time spent interacting. 3) Willingness to comply with the partner's wishes to interact is positively correlated between the cat and the human over all pairs examined--which helps explain the widespread popularity of cats, as pets.
A behavioral reflex mediated by identified motor neurons in the abdominal ganglion of Aplysia undergoes two simple forms of
shortterm modification. When the gill-with-drawal reflex was repeatedly evoked by a tactile stimulus to the siphon or mantle
shelf, the amplitude of the response showed marked decrement (habituation). After a period of rest the response showed spontaneous
recovery. The amplitude of a habituated response was facilitated by the presentation of a strong tactile stimulus to another
part of the animal (dishabituation). Many characteristics of habituation and dishabituation in Aplysia are similar to those
in vertebrates.
5-week old kittens (littermates of the same sex) were given one of three treatments: (a) handling and opportunity to play for a specified time with a different person 5 days a week for 4 weeks, (b) the same treatment with experimenter only, or (c) no special treatment. Once a week all kittens were given the same treatments by a stranger and by the experimenter. Fear of strangers was measured by number of escape attempts and retreats from persons. 1-person and no-treatment kittens were found to show significantly more fear of strangers than did 5-person kittens. 1-person cats made more social contacts and played with a string more and with greater skill than the other kittens did. It was concluded that while the stress of adapting to many persons may have led to less fear of strangers in the 5-person kittens, it also may have decreased their social and play behaviors.
The present study reports the maturation of behavioral responses to several classes of auditory stimulation and defines both natural and artificial stimuli to which kittens respond. This development is discussed relative to the physical maturation of the external auditory canal and the pinna and the extant electrophysiological and neuroanatomical literature. The external auditory canal did not reach its maximum depth until 12 ± 3 days of age and this was followed by a gradual deepening of the external concavity resulting in the complex adult pinna being formed at around 31 days of age. All but two of the animals showed diffuse pinna movements to tactile, visual and olfactory stimulation on the first post-natal day. The kittens showed a definite response to auditory stimuli by 5 ± 1.5 days. In all cases, the early responses consisted of a general arousal, bouts of pinna movements and facial squints. In general the earliest responses were seen to the tape recorded natural stimuli. Seventy-five percent of the animals responded to all stimulus presentations by 7 days of age, but showed adult latencies only at 14 days. Some degree of spatial localization appeared as early as 10 days, but 75% of the subjects showed this at 16 days with adult latencies coming in at 26 days. It was within this latter period that the animals began to show habituation to the non-animal sounds. These results demonstrate, by using a battery of both natural and artificial auditory stimuli, a diffuse reactivity in the neonatal kitten which suggests that the immature auditory system is quite capable of mediating simple behaviors before central connections are either electrophysiologically or anatomically mature.
We conducted playback experiments with wild bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, to determine whether there is sufficient information in their individually distinctive signature whistles for individual recognition. We conducted experiments with members of a resident community of dolphins in waters near Sarasota, Florida, during temporary capture-release projects. We used a paired playback design, wherein the same two whistle sequences were predicted to evoke opposite responses from two different target animals. This design controlled for any unknown cues that may have been present in the playback stimuli. We predicted that mothers would respond more strongly to the whistles of their own independent offspring than to the whistles of a familiar, similar-aged nonoffspring. Similarly, we predicted that independent offspring would respond more strongly to the whistles of their own mother than to the whistles of a familiar, similar-aged female. Target animals were significantly (P<0.02) more likely to respond to the predicted stimuli, with responses measured by the number of head turns towards the playback speaker. In bottlenose dolphin societies, stable, individual-specific relationships are intermixed with fluid patterns of association between individuals. In primate species that live in similar 'fission-fusion' type societies, individual recognition is commonplace. Thus, when taken in the context of what is known about the social structure and behaviour of bottlenose dolphins, these playback experiments suggest that signature whistles are used for individual recognition. Copyright 1999 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Dogs' ability to recognise cues of human visual attention was studied in different experiments. Study 1 was designed to test the dogs' responsiveness to their owner's tape-recorded verbal commands (Down!) while the Instructor (who was the owner of the dog) was facing either the dog or a human partner or none of them, or was visually separated from the dog. Results show that dogs were more ready to follow the command if the Instructor attended them during instruction compared to situations when the Instructor faced the human partner or was out of sight of the dog. Importantly, however, dogs showed intermediate performance when the Instructor was orienting into 'empty space' during the re-played verbal commands. This suggests that dogs are able to differentiate the focus of human attention. In Study 2 the same dogs were offered the possibility to beg for food from two unfamiliar humans whose visual attention (i.e. facing the dog or turning away) was systematically varied. The dogs' preference for choosing the attentive person shows that dogs are capable of using visual cues of attention to evaluate the human actors' responsiveness to solicit food-sharing. The dogs' ability to understand the communicatory nature of the situations is discussed in terms of their social cognitive skills and unique evolutionary history.
We tested whether dogs have a cross-modal representation of human individuals. We presented domestic dogs with a photo of either the owner's or a stranger's face on the LCD monitor after playing back a voice of one of those persons. A voice and a face matched in half of the trials (Congruent condition) and mismatched in the other half (Incongruent condition). If our subjects activate visual images of the voice, their expectation would be contradicted in Incongruent condition. It would result in the subjects' longer looking times in Incongruent condition than in Congruent condition. Our subject dogs looked longer at the visual stimulus in Incongruent condition than in Congruent condition. This suggests that dogs actively generate their internal representation of the owner's face when they hear the owner calling them. This is the first demonstration that nonhuman animals do not merely associate auditory and visual stimuli but also actively generate a visual image from auditory information. Furthermore, our subject also looked at the visual stimulus longer in Incongruent condition in which the owner's face followed an unfamiliar person's voice than in Congruent condition in which the owner's face followed the owner's voice. Generating a particular visual image in response to an unfamiliar voice should be difficult, and any expected images from the voice ought to be more obscure or less well defined than that of the owners. However, our subjects looked longer at the owner's face in Incongruent condition than in Congruent condition. This may indicate that dogs may have predicted that it should not be the owner when they heard the unfamiliar person's voice.
Zebra finches are monogamous birds living in large assemblies, which represent a source of confusion for recognition between mates. Because the members of a pair use distance calls to remain in contact, call-based mate recognition is highly probable in this species. Whereas it had been previously demonstrated in males [Vignal, C., Mathevon, N., Mottin, S., 2004. Audience drives male songbird response to mate's voice. Nature 430, 448-451], call-based mate recognition remained to be shown in females. By analysing the acoustic structure of male calls, we investigated the existence of an individual signature and identified the involved acoustic cues. We tested to see if females can identify their mates on the basis of their calls alone, and performed preliminary experiments using modified signals to investigate the acoustic basis of this recognition. Playback tests carried on six individuals showed that a female zebra finch is able to perform the call-based recognition of its mate. Our experiments suggested that the female uses both the energy spectrum and the frequency modulation of the male signal. More experiments are now needed to decipher precisely which acoustic cues are used by females for recognition.
Attachment behavior in dogs (Canis familiaris): a new application of Ainsworth's (1969) strange situation test The ethology of the human-cat relationship
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The effects of additional social-isation for kittens in a rescue centre on their behaviour and suitability as a pet Female perception of size-related formant shifts in red deer, Cervus elaphus
- Ra Bradshaw
RA, Bradshaw JWS (2008) The effects of additional social-isation for kittens in a rescue centre on their behaviour and suitability as a pet. Appl Anim Behav Sci 114:196–205 Charlton BD, Reby D, McComb K (2007) Female perception of size-related formant shifts in red deer, Cervus elaphus. Anim Behav 74:707–714
Genetic evidence for an East Asian origin of domestic dogs Individual recognition in wild bottlenose dolphins: a field test using playback experiments
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The cry embedded within the purr Use of experimenter-given cues in dogs
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The British museum book of cats
- J Clutton-Brock
A study on the relation between having pets, extraversion-neuroticism and psychosomatic symptoms
- R Ota
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Ota R, Nishimoto M, Inoue T (2005) A study on the relation between
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Personality research on pets and their owners: conceptual issues and review Companion animals and us: exploring the relationships between people and pets
- Al Podberscek
- Sd Gosling