Cats are able to recognise their own names much like their canine counterparts, a study has suggested.
Much is known about the ability of dogs to communicate with humans, but researchers in Japan decided to investigate how well domestic cats could discriminate between different human words.
The experiment involved measuring whether the cats reacted to their names when they were spoken among a string of other random nouns.
Read more: Fourteen breast cancer deaths investigated amid Tayside chemotherapy scandal
The same test was then carried out with the words being spoken by a stranger, rather than by the cats' owners.
Scientists discovered that the pets showed responses that would indicate recognition, such as pricking up their ears or moving their heads, although rarely showed any more excitement, such as moving their tails or making noise.
The experts said it was "reasonable" to believe cats would react to their own names as they might associate it with rewards, such as food or play, or with "punishments", such as having a bath or going to the vets.
Unlike in experiments with dogs, the team chose not to ask cats’ to retrieve named objects they had previously been shown.
The authors said: “the training of cats to perform on command would require a lot of effort and time.”
Read more: Alex Salmond aide: SNP not being 'honest' on independence
Atsuko Saito, from Sophia University in Tokyo, said the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, said it was not clear the cats realised their name was a name, however.
She said: “There is no evidence that cats have the ability to recognise themselves. So I think they just associated words – here, names – with rewards or punishment.”
She added that perhaps it would be possible to train cats to recognise specific words, for example to help them avoid dangerous objects.
She said: "This work has shed new light on the ability of cats to communicate with humans; further clarifying cats' abilities with respect to cat-human communication will potentially enhance the welfare of both humans and cats."
Read more: First look inside new £100m luxury Caledonian Sleeper
As for why cats don’t always come when called, Saito says they are just ignoring you.
“Cats are not evolved to respond to human cues,” says Saito. “They will communicate with humans when they want. That is the cat.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here