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Cat Meows Have Evolved Because of Humans

Posted by timothy on from the as-if-this-weren't-obvious dept.

GuyMannDude writes: "ABCNews.com has a story on research being done at Cornell University's Psychology of Voice and Sound Laboratory on cat meows. The scientists believe that over generations, cats have learned how to meow in different ways specifically in order to hook into human perception tendencies and get what they want."

3 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. Re:evolution or learning? by sydb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Alternatively, it might be that humans have bred cats to meow, subconsciously favouring the more 'appealing' animals when pairing mates.

    The domestic cat is quite far removed from anything natural.

    You don't need to be fit for a 'natural' purpose to survive, providing the environment is suitably artificial.

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    Yours Sincerely, Michael.
  2. Evolution of a Cat's Meow by Peapod · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Our society has become so dominated by the evolutionary theories that whenever something changes over time, it doesn't change, but evolves, as if it were a change in the make-up of a cat's genetic code.

  3. interesting theory, but... by spood · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think it's much more plausible that humans have adjusted their opinion of what an 'urgent' meow and a 'contented' meow are, rather than the cats adjusting to our 'language'. We observe a contented cat and the associated meow and we learn to recognize the difference. Which do you think is more likely? Cats have evolved a language to speak to humans, or humans have learned to recognize cats' language?

    Comparisons to feral cats in zoos, let alone the wild makes no sense. It might make more sense to raise a feral cat in one's house from kittenhood and see if it made the same language adjustments. I very much doubt that the language is herditary.

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