Do cats meow sweetly for our ears only?

CATS make a range of sounds that include chirps, hisses, trills, chirrups, yowls, snarls and more. The meow is simply one of those sounds, and even then researchers argue over how many types of meow there are, and what they mean.

In one interesting study by Cornell University, researchers recorded 535 meows from 12 adult cats (seven females and five males).

When they analysed their recordings, results suggested that meows come in five distinct flavours.

They found a special meow that was reserved for talking about food, one that was pure fighting talk, one for sweet talk, one for pointing out obstacles like shut doors, and one distress call reserved for trips to the vet and other horrors.

People listening to isolated cat meows were asked to say what the cat was talking about. The more they knew cats, the more they got the message right.

In a follow-up study, researchers tried to see if domestic cats were using sweet-sounding meows compared to the rough and tough meows of the African wildcat.

Results suggested that our pet cats sound nicer to the human ear than the wildcats.

As such, it is possible that cats have adapted over time to meow nicely, purely as a result of living cheek-to-whisker with us.

And because they communicate a lot with us, pet cats have become quite sophisticated in their language.