ABS 2023
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Decoding Feline Music: Behavioral Responses to Species-Relevant Sounds in Cat-Specific Compositions
Rachel Anello, Qian Qian Mei, Julia McLagan, Reggie Paxton Gazes. Bucknell University, Lewisburg , Pennsylvania, United States

Compared to human music, tamarins and domestic cats show increased behavioral responses to music specifically composed for them. However it remains unclear whether this is a response to the composition as a whole, or is driven by interest in individual species-relevant sounds within the music. In this study, we presented domestic cats (Felis catus; n=32) housed in a communal cat cafe with the full track and the isolated component parts of a cat-specific composition.� A speaker was placed in the center of the room, and a single track was played for 10 minutes. Tracks were either the full composition, isolated instrumentals, isolated synthesized “purr”, isolated synthesized “suckling”, or a white noise control. We recorded each cat’s distance from the speaker at one minute intervals.� Cats spent more time near the speaker during the synthesized purr track than the other tracks, suggesting that their interest in cat-specific music may be driven by interest in this specific species-relevant sound. A follow up study indicated that this interest was not an artifact of the synthesized nature of the sound, as cats did not differentiate between the synthesized purr and a real purr.