Abstract
Simple SummaryAmong carnivore animals, domestic cats are those with the most extensive vocal repertoire. This is due to their social organization, nocturnal activity and long period of contact between the mother and the offspring. In order to identify vocalizations other than meowing in two different situations, a study was performed with 74 cats divided into two groups, one associated with a pleasant situation and another with an aversive situation. Only the group exposed to the positive stimulus of being offered a favorite snack produced specific vocalizations other than meowing: recognition or trill, squeak, purring and chatter. During the aversive situation of car transport, no vocalization other than meowing was observed. The present study indicates the relevance of applying the study of vocalizations to determine the state of emotional valence in cats.Our objective was to identify and characterize the types of vocalization other than meowing (VOM) in two contexts, a pleasant and an aversive situation, and to study the effect of the sex of the animal. A total of 74 cats (32 tom cats and 42 queens) living in the city of Curitiba, Brazil, participated in the study; in total, 68 (29 tom cats and 39 queens) were divided into two groups according to the stimulus they were exposed to: either a pleasant situation (PS), when they were offered a snack, or an aversive situation (AS), with the simulation of a car transport event. The other six animals (three tom cats and three queens) participated in both situations. Only the PS group presented VOM; of the 40 PS animals, 14 presented VOM, mostly acknowledgment or trill and squeak. No correlation was observed between vocalization and cat sex (p = 0.08; Pearson’s Chi-Square). Results show that VOM is exclusively associated with positive situations, suggesting that these vocalizations may be relevant for understanding the valence of cat emotional state. Further studies are warranted to advance knowledge on other VOMs and on the generalization of our findings to other situations.
Highlights
Communication plays a central role in various aspects of animal life, such as during breeding interactions, territorial defense, parental care and anti-predator behavior in many species
Vocalizations other than meowing were completely absent when cats were exposed to aversive situation (AS), which was a major finding of this work: when facing the specific AS studied, the only type of vocalization cats emitted was meowing
The literature provides reasons for hypothesizing a difference between sex for cat vocalization, since females play an important role in raising kittens, an activity highly related to vocal communication [12]
Summary
Communication plays a central role in various aspects of animal life, such as during breeding interactions, territorial defense, parental care and anti-predator behavior in many species. Vocalization is the active generation of sounds with the use of specific organs, which propagate through acoustic signals that transmit a wide range of information about the communicator, including his or her emotional, motivational and physiological states [1,2]. A better understanding of how animals communicate their feelings is fundamental for all aspects of animal welfare, which is an ever increasing societal demand. As an essential mode for communicating feelings and emotions in the human species, we are prone to understanding oral expressions, provided they occur in a manner that we have decodified. In the context of vocalizations as indicators of animal welfare, cats (Felis catus) are of special interest. They have lived with humans for over
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