A new study at the University of Tokyo has revealed that although pet cats are able to recognize their owner's voice, they aren't particularly interested in responding to their calls.
Twenty domesticated cats were observed for eight months in their homes to inspect their behavior in response to the recognition of different voices calling out the cats' names - both strangers' voices and the cats' owners, Mother Nature Network reported.
In other words, your cats might just not be interested in acknowledging your presence.
While 30 percent displayed typical reactions by moving their ears when hearing a sound, only 10 percent of the felines moved their tails or meowed when called by their names. According to MNN, 50 to 70 percent of cats turned their heads in response.
The study, published in Animal Cognition journal, found that the response rates were identical when the cats were called by either the stranger or the owner. But they did portray a "more intense" reaction to the owner's voice, indicating a stronger bond to familiar people, MNN said.
All of this might be due to the fact that cats essentially "domesticated themselves," the study's author reported. The study suggests that the animal's evolution must be the reason for cats' unresponsive behavior.
"Historically speaking, cats, unlike dogs, have not been domesticated to obey humans' orders," the study reads. "Rather, they seem to take the initiative in human-cat interaction."
Unlike dogs that were trained over thousands of years to take commands, the author claims cats never found the need to learn to obey human orders.
"Dogs are perceived by their owners as being more affectionate than cats, dog owners and cat owners do not differ significantly in their reported attachment level to their pets," the study reported.
The study humorously claims to not have found why cat owners are so attached to their felines despite their apathy, MNN reported.
"The behavioral aspect of cats that cause their owners to become attached to them are still undetermined."
