Cats are able to recognise their own names much like their canine counterparts, a study has suggested. Much is known about the ability of dogs to communicate with humans, but researchers in Japan decided to investigate how well domestic cats could discriminate between different human words. The experiment involved measuring whether the cats reacted to their names when they were spoken among a string of other random nouns. The same test was then carried out with the words being spoken by a stranger, rather than by the cats’ owners. “This work has shed new light on the ability of cats to communicate with humans; further clarifying cats’ abilities with respect to cat-human communication will potentially enhance the welfare of both humans and cats.” - PA

Source: The Irish Times April 05, 2019 08:26 UTC