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Cats are known for their independent and aloof natures, but a new study has revealed the way to the heart of even the most aloof feline.
Scientists from the University of Nanterre in Paris sat in a “cat café,” where cats roam freely and approach customers, testing different ways to win them over.
They found that cats reacted most quickly to human strangers when they gave vocal and visual cues together, such as calling out their name while holding out their hand.
But when humans completely ignored the animals, they were more likely to wag their tails — a sign of frustration or excitement.
The researchers hope their findings will improve the quality of the human-cat relationship and the welfare of cats.
Scientists at the University of Nanterre in Paris found that cats reacted most quickly to human strangers when they offered vocal and visual cues together (stock image)
Cats responded most quickly to human strangers when they gave vocal and visual cues together, such as calling out their name while holding out their hand. Pictured: Time taken by cats to approach the examiner according to each test condition
“People should be encouraged to use appropriate visual communicative cues when interacting with cats, especially with unfamiliar individuals,” the authors wrote.
Cats are known to have developed through domestication the ability to interpret and respond to human signals.
Recent studies have shown that they can recognize their owner’s voice when speaking directly to them, and also see a slow blink as a smile.
However, according to the authors of the new work, research on human-cat interactions is currently limited.
For their study, published in Animalsthe team wanted to discover how sensitive cats are to human signals, which signals they are most receptive to and how they respond.
They recruited 12 cats for the study, who had lived in one of two cat cafes in Bordeaux and Toulouse in France for at least three years.
One by one, the cats and their owners were led to a quiet room, where a researcher he had never met before waited.
After 10 seconds, the experimenter would do one of four things; provide a visual signal, a vocal signal, both a visual and a vocal signal at the same time (bimodal) or no signal at all.
Examples of visual cues include extending their hand and blinking slowly, while examples of vocal cues include calling out the cat’s name or making a “pff pff” sound, which is commonly used by the French to call out to cats .
The time it took the cat to get within four inches of the examiner was recorded, as was how they responded, such as by yelling, blinking, or wagging their tail.
One by one, the cats and their owners were led to a quiet room, where a researcher he had never met before waited. After ten seconds, the researcher did one of four things; provide a visual signal, a vocal signal, both a visual and a vocal signal at the same time (bimodal) or no signal at all. Pictured: experimental setup
Cats wag their tails much more when they received no signal than when they did receive a visual or bimodal signal. Shown: Duration of tail wagging in each test condition
After analyzing the results, it turned out that cats approached the researcher much more quickly if they gave a visual or bimodal signal.
“A short latency of approach is believed to reflect greater attraction,” the authors wrote.
They say the vocal communication may not have been appealing in itself, as cats are not used to being called without the human making eye contact.
In addition, of all the different responses the cats gave, only the tail wagging was found to be significantly affected by the type of human communication signal given.
They wag their tails much more when they received no signal than when they did receive a visual or bimodal signal.
“Side-to-side tail flicks usually occur when cats are faced with a frustrating situation,” the authors wrote.
“Therefore, our data suggests that being in a room with an unfamiliar human who ignores them can be unpleasant for cats, if not frustrating.”
The researchers conclude that cats prefer visual and bimodal signals from strangers. They say this is evidence that cats have developed specific ways of communicating with humans through their domestication that have proven effective and beneficial to the species (stock image)
There was also more wagging in response to the vocal cue than the bimodal, suggesting this was more frustrating for them.
Lead author Dr. Charlotte de Mouzon told Gizmodo that the cat may be especially stressed because they had previously played with people in that same room, but now they ignored them.
They conclude that cats show a preference for visual and bimodal cues from strangers.
They say this is evidence that cats have developed specific ways of communicating with humans through domestication, which have proven effective and beneficial to the species.
Previous research has shown that trained dogs respond less well to vocal cues from unfamiliar people as they do of known.
The authors suggest this could be the same for cats, explaining why they weren’t so attracted to the vocal cues alone from the unknown researcher.
“The results of the current study can serve as a basis for practical recommendations for navigating the codes of human-cat interactions,” they wrote.