Scientists Explain Feline Purring

Manuka writes: "The Daily Telegraph has an article that tells us that scientists have discovered that purring in cats is actually a self-healing mechanism that strengthens their bones and lends weight to the extraordinary resilience of felines. Tigers lack this mechanism for some reason. They are also exploring the possibilities of replicating this mechanism in humans with 'sound treatment,' to help treat bone disorders." This article does not address how cats purr, though, and that seems like just as burning a question, nor does it explain how those low-freq sounds actually do achieve the benefits attributed to them.

Comments

The degree of utter BS on the web is astounding.

[catseye_95051]

This IS a joke, right???

Its not just Tigers, it sall great Cats that don't purr. Ist the construction of the voice box. Great Cats can growl but not purr, small cats can purr but not truely growl. in afct, this is the DEFINITION of Great Cat and small cat.

Hard to take any supposed 'resarcher" seriously who didn't even know the bilogical definitiosn of his subject material.

This belongs on Whitley's World, not Slashdot.

(If you are INTO new-age total BS psuedo-science you might want to try www.whitleysworld.com)

Re:The degree of utter BS on the web is astounding

[RedWizzard]

Its not just Tigers, it sall great Cats that don't purr. Ist the construction of the voice box. Great Cats can growl but not purr, small cats can purr but not truely growl. in afct, this is the DEFINITION of Great Cat and small cat.

That "definition" you quote was formulated in 1916 and is not universally followed. Lions and many other big cats do purr, although they are only able to purr as they exhale so it's not quite the same as with smaller cats.

Here are a few pages with details:
wav of Cheetah purr,
Big cats,
Lion,
Puma.

As for the research, it's a well known fact that injured cats purr (see, e.g. Encyclopaedia Britannica) so it's hardly suprising that it might have some beneficial effect. Here's a link to the original article this story is on.

I liked this quote

[HiNote]

One recent study, published in The Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, found that out of 132 cats that fell an average of 5.5 storeys, 90 per cent survived, including one that fell 45 storeys.

I like cats and all, but I found the mental picture I formed while reading this quite funny: Men dressed in white lab coats conducting an official study by throwing cats out windows to see if they'd survive, with another man with a clipboard and white lab coat standing on the ground tallying the results.

Re:I liked this quote

[sporktoast]

I read somewhere a while ago about injury rates for cats falling from various heights.

Apparently, severity & likelihood of injury climb upward as the height goes up, as you might expect. But then somewhere up several stories, the injury rate and severity suddenly dropped significantly, then began climbing again, but more slowly. After a bit if research, someone discovered an explanation.

Cats reflexively turn to land on their feet as they fall. As you get above a couple of storeys, this becomes more of a liability. The accelerated velocity combined with the tense, standing position increases the likelihood of broken limbs. If the height is above that several-storey mark, the cat gets pretty much to terminal velocity for its weight/wind resistence. At that point, the cat relaxes and spreads it's legs out. The increase in drag actually slows the cat down a bit. And the relaxed posture also spreads out the impact area. Result: fewer and less sever injuries.