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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. evolution or learning? by oyenstikker · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Are they basing this on survival of the fittest? Cats that don't meow well die? I don't think so. Cats learn what sounds get a response, and use them. Kittens learn from their parents, who learned from their parents. . . This is learned behaviour, not evolution.

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    The masses are the crack whores of religion.
  2. My cat by gnovos · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My cat had a way of mimicing my speech in a limited scope. If I would walk into a room and say "hi" she would respond with a very short "mmw" but if I sait "hello" (two sylables) she would respond with two of her own "mmw meow". I wonder if other cat owners had seen similar things...

    --
    "Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
  3. Pavlov's Cat by Skjellifetti · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Analog SciFi once printed a poem called Pavlov's Cat. I wish I could remember it as a poem, but the gist is that while Pavlov is training his dogs, Pavlov's cat repeatedly rubs up against his leg, meows, and walks to the door until Pavlov finally lets him outside. By the end of the poem, Pavlov's dogs are salivating at the sound of a bell and Pavlov is automatically letting his cat out when it meows.

    Dogs have masters. Cats have staff.

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    FreeSpeech.org