Cats purr to each other, but the scientists found felines really exaggerate their solicitation purring when communicating with humans, making felines near impossible to ignore. Georgia Mason, a professor and Canada Research Chair in Animal Welfare at the University of Guelph, told Discovery News she was pleased to see that "this careful work shows there are at least two types of purring: the shrill ones cats wake you up with, and the relaxing one they do at other times." "It makes me wonder whether dogs and cats learn to make sounds we find particularly hard to ignore, or whether we have selected for animals whose signals we find naturally recognizable and comprehensible," Mason added. Both she and McComb hope future studies will continue to unravel the mysteries of cat vocalizations, since they believe purring alone may be much more complex than previously thought, with various types of purrs, such as those emitted when cats are in pain, conveying different information. Related Links: |
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