Music to the Ears
Welcome to another blog! :)
Last time, I wrote on dogs and what seems to make them tick to certain kinds of sounds. It would be only fair if I do one for cats as well for our cat lover readers!
Do cats like music?
Just like dogs and ourselves, cats enjoy listening to music! However, unlike both of us, cats seem to have a unique preference for the type of music they listen to. “What could it be?”, you might ask. Keep on reading to find out!
Study and Findings
A study was conducted by Dr. Susan Wagner in which classical, pop, and rock music were played for 12 cats. What she found was that cats had the strongest positive reaction towards classical music than pop and rock. From this, it was concluded that cats prefer classical music due to its less sporadic and calmer sound as the classical piece played for the cats was on the calmer side. As for pop, the cats did not seem to have much of a reaction towards it, similar to how the dogs in the shelter reacted to the genre. In addition, similar to the dogs, the cats became more agitated when listening to rock music. But unlike the dogs, they did not bark, but instead displayed signs of distress as evidenced by their increased heart rate and dilated pupils.
The Differences (Part I)
Now let’s get into the differences between dogs and people to cats. While all three species -humans, dogs, and cats- have been shown to have a positive reaction to the classical genre, cats show an even stronger positive reaction to species specific music. What is species specific music? Species specific music is music that is composed to fit how an animal communicates. You can almost say that human music is species specific as we have singers -who are from our own species- that we regularly listen to. Knowing this, imagine that you are listening to dog or cat species specific music (there are many songs of this on youtube if you are curious) or just a dog barking and howling. You probably would rather listen to your own species specific music. I know I do!
The Differences (Part II)
An example of sounds that would be present in cat music is one that would mimic the frequencies of purring and birds chirping. Granted, dogs too enjoy listening to species specific music but cats seem to show a stronger preference for this genre than the dogs expressed. This can be inferred due to dogs reacting towards classical music while cats seem to be more indifferent. This difference between dogs and cats can also be due to how domesticated they are. Multiple studies have shown that dogs are more domesticated than cats, with dogs being domesticated by humans and cats who essentially domesticated themselves. In a way, you could say that cats are more “wild” than dogs are! In fact, cats are considered to only be semi-domesticated. How cool is that?
Why Cats are Considered to Only be Semi-Domesticated
I know that this is kind of off topic to what I am supposed to be discussing in this blog but I think some of you might want to know why cats are only considered to be semi-domesticated so let’s get straight to the facts without any fluff. To those who joke about how their kitten is “wild”, recent genetic studies prove that you are pretty much right. House cats almost identical to wild cats both physically and genetically. So if humans have been living with cats for at least the past 10,000 years, why haven’t cats been domesticated yet? This is because we haven’t begun purposefully domesticating them until less than 1,000 years ago (in contrast, humans began the domesticating process with dogs at least 30,000 years ago). Arguably, one could say that we are at the dawn of cat domestication.
Back on Track
Now let’s get back to what we are supposed to discuss -the study of cats and their responses to music. Researchers who were studying cats and their reactions to music played two human pieces of music (Bach’s “Air on a G String” and Gabriel Faure’s “Elegie”) and two cat appropriate music. What they found was that kittens, younger cats, and elderly cats showed “significant preference for and interest in” the cat music compared to the human songs which they were indifferent to (middle aged cats did not show much of a reaction to either genres). Sorry Bach and Faure!
Take Aways
After reading this, using cat appropriate music as auditory enrichment does not sound like a bad idea! Not only will it give your kitten something new, but it will be something that they could enjoy as well.
I hope you learned as much as I did when writing this! What did you learn? Will you try playing classical and “naturesque” music to your kitten?
Citations:
[1] Annalee Newitz - Jun 19, 2017 8:01 pm UTC, and Aged Ars Veteran jump to post rpresser Wise. “Cats Are an Extreme Outlier among Domestic Animals.” Ars Technica, 19 June 2017, https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/06/cats-are-an-extreme-outlier-among-domestic-animals/.
[2] “Do Cats like Music?” Hill's Pet Nutrition, https://www.hillspet.com/cat-care/behavior-appearance/do-cats-like-music.
[3] Scuiletti, Justin. “Cats Don't like Human Music - Play Them This Instead.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 5 Mar. 2015, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/cats-dont-like-human-music-play-instead.