French scientists from the University of the West of Paris have figured out the best way to call a cat. It seems that cats living in special anti-cafes responded most quickly to a stranger when they used both audio and visual signals to get the animals’ attention. The results of the research have been published magazine animals
The scientists selected 12 cats living in the anti-cafe. The lead author of the study had to call cats in different ways: call them by voice, just lie down, do nothing, and call and gesture at the same time.
The last scenario turned out to work best. The second most effective option was the one using signal call only. Scientists were surprised by this, because previous studies have shown that cats are excellent at recognizing and responding to their owners’ voices.
“This shows that for a cat, communicating with its owner is not the same as communicating with a stranger. Another intriguing finding was that cats are more likely to wag their tails when completely ignored. Dogs can happily wag their tails, but cats often do the opposite,” says scientists. does—it’s an indicator of stress or discomfort,” he said.
In the future, scientists plan to continue investigating the nuances of communication between cats and humans.