this post was submitted on 15 May 2024
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Microblog Memes

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[–] jewbacca117 167 points 6 months ago (7 children)

cats absolutely meow to other cats

[–] somethingsomethingidk 100 points 6 months ago (3 children)

From wikipedia

Adult cats rarely meow to each other. Thus, an adult cat meowing to human beings is generally considered a post-domestication extension of meowing by kittens: a call for attention.

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 6 months ago

My cats meow at each other sometimes, especially when surprised or trying to pick a fight, but it's very different than how they meow at me. And they seem to favor non verbal cues with each other as well.

[–] LemmyLogin 42 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Domesticated cats meow much more than wild ones do, since they’ve learned to do it for us. Cat mothers chirp to their kittens. So while yes, they do, the tweet is right; cats meow to get our attention, and they meow at about the same frequency as babies.

[–] glimse 56 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

The incorrect part about the tweet is that they do it to mimic human infants. They do not. They learned that humans love a little meow meow and it gets them attention, it's confidential that it's similar to babies

My friend had a cat whose meow sounded like an elderly pack-a-day smoker.

[–] samus12345 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, this implies that every single cat has heard a baby crying. Clearly this is not the case.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago

Convergent evolution. Their cries naturally mimic the frequencies of human babies. It's not deliberate, but rather there happened to be a creature that lived around humans that worked this way, and now it's a survival trait.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

I believed the tweet for a second, but then I remembered all the times I have woken in middle of the night with the gangs of cats outside my street just meowing to each other

Edit: I am wrong, I looked up Yowling and that’s definitely what I heard, not meowing.

[–] Soku 43 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Those cats on the street are not meowing, they are yowling. That's a holler to intimidate or to fight, over a territory or hot ladies. That's not a meow for a human to fill the food bowl or give scritches or something else tame and domestic.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

it's honestly ever so slightly worrying that people would think yowling and meowing are the same thing, they can be sorta similar sure but yowls literally sound like a human voice and are slightly unnerving because of it.

It's like a parent thinking a baby's laughter and screaming are the same thing, that's.. not a good sign..

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Maybe "meow" is cat language for "filthy peasant", so they're using it to insult each other and to address us.

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[–] jose1324 7 points 6 months ago

They don't, they chatter and chirp. But not full meows.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Do they though?

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[–] hperrin 89 points 6 months ago (4 children)

Cats meow to each other all the time. This is some grade A misinformation right here.

[–] RememberTheApollo_ 33 points 6 months ago

Watch “Mr. Kitters the Cat”, the guy that straps the camera to his cat and you get to see kitty adventures around the neighborhood. The cats talk to each other all the time.

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[–] ThatWeirdGuy1001 73 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I keep seeing this "factoid" and I'm pretty sure it's just bullshit.

Cats meow to each other all the time. They can meow in frequencies humans can't hear but they didn't start meowing just to "manipulate" humans.

Cats did however develop a specific type of meow that does in fact mimic the frequencies of a baby crying but it's not the cats normal meow.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 6 months ago (5 children)

This is the first time I've seen the word factoid used for its actual original definition... but why you put it in quotes?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Maybe he wasnt 100% sure about the definition of "factoid" so he just kinda factoided the word "factoid" into existence :D

[–] ThatWeirdGuy1001 12 points 6 months ago

That's actually exactly what happened.

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[–] kernelle 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Combining sound and food stimuli is classic pavlov conditioning. Cats learn very quickly if they make any sound that a human will react in a way, ie scratching a door for territory or meowing for food.

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[–] [email protected] 62 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

If cats didn't meow at each other, I'd be able to sleep better because I wouldn't have cats screaming at each other outside my bedroom window all night.

It fucking sucks having to eat a bunch of cat food, huff a bunch of glue and then drink a bunch of beer to feel sick and sleepy enough to pass out.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago

Wanna play nightcrawlers?!

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago

I wouldn't classify the screaming as meowing

[–] [email protected] 58 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Urban myth. How often are we gonna keep reposting this bullshit.

[–] abbotsbury 22 points 6 months ago (5 children)

Well it's based on a fact, iirc the real thing is domesticated cats learn to keep their kitten mew because humans respond to it, nothing to do with imitating human babies. But that does mean that only cats raised by people meow.

[–] uienia 5 points 6 months ago

But it also means that it is a complete lie that "cat's don't meow to each other".

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 6 months ago (4 children)

I once read that cats fully understand that we want their attention when we call them. They just choose to ignore it.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I can independently confirm. My cats definitely know their names, and their ears will perk up when called. But most of the time they can't be bothered to turn their heads towards the sound, there's no chance they'll get up to engage unless they hear a treat bag crinkle with it lol

[–] Aceticon 12 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Cats, like demons, have many names only one of which is their true name to which they obbey without question.

Curiously cat's true names usually sound a lot like a treat bag cringle or the sound of a cat food can being opened.

[–] kernelle 29 points 6 months ago

Here's the study on that, it was specifically the name calling that was studied. Where they concluded that the cats brain reacted to their name, but actively decided to ignore it. Always stuck with me as well!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (3 children)

My cats don't ignore it, and will come running when they hear their name.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

When my cat is laid down, and I call him, his ear move on my direction for a second and them come back. Consecutive calls don't even gain an ear movement.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 6 months ago (1 children)

if you think cats are fake wait till you find out about humans

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[–] TrickDacy 17 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Meanwhile dogs wag their tails at other dogs all the time

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver 13 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

Dogs are also guilty of adapting their natural behaviors to communicate with humans too, and it's really interesting. Things like eye-contact or being extra expressive with their "eyebrows"

[–] Addition1291 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

My understanding is that wolves don't have "eyebrows" at all. The fact that many dogs have them is either an evolved or selected trait specifically to communicate with humans.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I heard once that dogs can't really hide their emotions because they are telegraphed by pheromones from anal glands, so the only thing they can do is adjust how widely the pheromones are spread, by wagging their tail to spread positive feelings and tucking their tail between their legs to hide negative emotions.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago

Hmm. I've heard that before, but I'll pretty much stop whatever I'm doing if I hear a meow! Whereas a baby crying just makes me think "please shut the fuck up"...

[–] FlyingSquid 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Dogs think we're the gods. Cats think they're the gods.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Cats know they're the gods 🤣

[–] FlyingSquid 5 points 6 months ago

Much like how Yaweh can be defeated by iron chariots, the cat gods can be defeated with a spray bottle.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)
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