London - Even the biggest feline fan will admit that obedience isn’t exactly a cat’s strong point.
Now scientists have proved the animals really are just plain wilful – after discovering that while they can recognise the voice of their owner, they choose to ignore it.
The researchers claim this is because cats domesticated themselves so, unlike dogs, they did not need to pay attention to humans during the evolutionary process.
During the study, carried out at each cat’s home, the owner called to their animal when it was out of sight. The animal’s response to each call was logged by measuring their movement, vocalisation and eye dilation.
They found that the animals moved their heads in the direction of the noise and pricked up their ears.
When the same experiment was carried out with a stranger’s voice, the cats were found to be significantly less responsive. In both cases, they chose not to respond to it.
Atsuko Saito and Kazutaka Shinozuka, the researchers at the University of Japan who led the project, said: “This cat-owner relationship is in contrast to that with dogs. Cats do not actively respond with communicative behaviour to owners who are calling them from out of sight, even though they can distinguish their owners’ voices.”
The reason for the indifference of cats is believed to be rooted in the early domestication of the species.
Writing in the journal Animal Cognition, the researchers said: “Historically speaking, cats, unlike dogs, have not been domesticated to obey humans’ orders.
“Rather, they seem to take the initiative in human–cat interaction.”
Genetic analysis shows that the common ancestor of the modern housecat was Felis silvestris, a small wildcat that came into contact with humans more than 9 000 years ago.
The species is then thought to have domesticated itself without answering directly to humans.
Despite their independence, cats are reported to be as affectionate as dogs by their owners.
The study said that “the behavioural aspect of cats that cause their owners to become attached to them are still undetermined”. - Daily Mail