We know, there are much more worthy subjects that scientists could be researching, but equally, we are intrigued.
Haven’t you always wondered if your cat enjoys listening to your playlist as much as you do? Do they prefer classical over heavy metal, hiphop over easy listening? Or maybe none of these? It’s kind of hard to tell.
Well, wonder no more because scientists now have the answers to these burning questions.
First, the bad news: A 2015 study, published in Applied Animal Behaviour, found that pet cats don’t care much for our music (any genre) at all.
But on the upside, scientists have developed “cat-centric” music that they say kitties think is purrfect.
They didn’t actually use the term “purrfect”, but they did observe 47 domestic cats’ reactions after listening to the cat music they created.
Apparently, the cats became so excited they approached the speakers and rubbed their scent glands (found in their cheeks) on them — meaning they were trying to claim the speakers for themselves. When researchers compared this extreme reaction to the ho-hum response kitties gave after hearing “human-centric” music, the clear winner was cat-centric.
“We looked at the natural vocalisations of cats and matched our music to the same frequency range, which is about an octave or more higher than human voices,” lead author Charles Snowdon said in an interview with Discovery News.
“And since cats use lots of sliding frequencies in their calls, the cat music had many more sliding notes than the human music.”
Adorably enough, this research could offer a possible way of keeping cats calm in places where they might be anxious — like a shelter or at the vet. But we have to say that right now, we’re super curious to try this tune out on our own cats at home to see how they respond.
Think your cat would like this “music”? Why not play the Connecticut Public Radio/WNPR 24-second cat music video below and see for yourself?
Via Women’s World
