NEW YORK — A cat’s purr normally says, “I’m happy.” But a new study suggests some purrs send cat owners a much different message: “Feed me!”
Researchers found that purrs of hungry cats included a higher-pitched sound, somewhat like a cry or meow. They played recordings of these purrs from 10 cats to 50 human volunteers. Even people who’d never owned a cat found them to be more urgent and less pleasant than contented purrs from the same animals.
Not all cats use this strategy, but some apparently learn to turn it on when they see it’s effective in getting a human to feed them, Karen McComb of the University of Sussex in England said.
She and co-authors present their work in Tuesday’s issue of the journal Current Biology.
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