The Cat’s Meow
Cats communicate vocally with people quite differently than dogs do. There is no mistake that yowling, growling, hissing, and spitting occur when cats are threatening or aggressive. Cats don’t make these sounds when they want something from us or are being friendly. In contrast, dogs can bark in both friendly and threatening interactions, although the barks may sound quite different depending on the context.
The most common vocalization cats direct to people is the meow. Most experts in cat behavior believe cats meow at relatively high rates to people because the behavior so often “works” for cats to get what they want. Our late, great cat Buffett meowed at us anytime we were in the kitchen because he wanted us to feed him. Due to his tendency to overeat, Buffett was not on a free-choice feeding routine, and he thought he was always hungry. Studies have shown it is quite easy to train food-deprived cats to meow.
There is significant individual variation among cats regarding frequency of meows, what elicits the behavior, and how the meow sounds. Many cat owners report they can tell from the type of meow what the cat wants. A meow to elicit petting sounds different from a meow when a cat is begging for food.
Acoustically, the meow is similar to the calls kittens make when they are alone, cold, hungry, or trapped (e.g. if the queen is lying on them). Interestingly, adult cats rarely meow to each other. The meow seems to be primarily a cat-human communication. Some experts in cat behavior have likened the human-cat relationship to that of mother-kitten, so it is interesting that cat-to-cat meowing occurs primarily from kittens to mom.
Meowing can be a mutually rewarding communication between cat and owner; it can be annoying as Buffett’s food-begging meow was; or meowing can a more serious behavior issue, as it is in older cats who meow for hours at night, keeping their owners awake.
In some cases, nocturnal meowing is nothing more than normal behavior. Cats tend to be more active either at night, or near dawn and dusk (the technical term for this is crepuscular) and meowing is just part of their activity pattern. However, excessive nocturnal meowing in older cats is not well understood. It may be due to increased anxiety resulting from neurological and sensory changes as part of the aging process.
A thorough veterinary examination is always indicated for these older cats. Medication may be helpful, as can behavior modification, and changes in the cat’s environment and routine to help decrease anxiety and modify activity patterns.
I have also noticed that cats use variations of tones/voices in “meow” to communicate their ideas. This is a really interesting phenomenon. Body language also plays a major role in cat communication. Problem with humans is they are much used to rely on words ignoring body language. It is a famous fact that even human communication is of ninety percent body language. Since we always ignore body language, it is fair to say that cats are better communicators than humans.
You are certainly correct in saying that other species of animals, including cats, rely more on body language than people do. Our language abilities seems to overshadow communication through other channels such as vision and olfaction. Even humans can learn to be better at reading body language – law enforcement types and even clinical psychologists and others for example are specifically trained to do so. So, I don’t think it’s fair to cats are better communicators than humans – they certainly don’t have the depth of auditory communications we have. Each species excels at communicating with its own species. It’s more helpful to recognize that each species has its own unique communication signals and when both get better at accurately observing and interpreting each other’s signals, communication improves. That’s usually related to attachment – the more time we spend with one another, and more attached we become and the more we learn about one another. Thanks for your comment!