Japanese study: Cats can remember the names of their friends | home and garden

A team of Japanese researchers, a principal investigator affiliated with Kyoto University, stated in 2019 in the journal Scientific Reports that cats know their name and some of the spoken words. The same team now says, based on a new study, that cats also know the names of their feline friends.

For the study, scientists examined the behavior of 48 cats living with other cats of their kind; 29 of those cats live in cat cafes, and 19 live with people who have at least two other cats.

For each cat participant, the Japanese researchers played an audio clip of the owner calling the name of another furry roommate several times. The researchers also showed pictures of the cat participants: first a picture of the animal called by the cat owner, then a picture of a cat with a different name.

What turned out? Domestic cats stare longer at the photo of the “wrong” cat, which the researchers say shows they were struggling with the fact that the photo and the name being named do not belong together. The Japanese conclude: “We have shown that cats expect a specific face when hearing a specific name for their mate.” “This study provides evidence that cats associate their companion’s name and face without explicit training.”

Remarkably, the animals from the cat cafe paid less attention to the wrong combination of the image and the vocal part. According to the researchers, this indicates that cafe cats are less close to their feline friends than house cats, and are often referred to by name.

This may sound interesting, but the researchers admit that their study is not 100% foolproof. Not all cats were equally excited about participating in the study. Not even a single cat was allowed to participate, simply because he didn’t feel like it. He kept trying to escape from the room.