Feline vocal communication

Abstract

Cat vocalizes to communicate with another and express their internal states. The vocal repertoire of the cat is wide and up to 21 diffrent vocalizations have been described in the literatures. But it is more than probable that the repertoire contains more types of vocalizations. An ethogram was created in this paper describing the actual known vocalisations of the domestic cat based on an auditory classifiation. However, the audiogram allows also a visual classifiation which can increase the accuracy of vocalization diffrentiation. The classifiation can be risky as it is sometimes unclear if diffrent types of vocalizations are produced in diffrent environments or if a unique type of vocalization is used with variation in the acoustic parameters. As an example, isolation calls produced by kittens diffr depending on the context. The environment has an important impact on the vocal behaviour and thus feral cats and pet cats vocalize diffrently. Pet cats are thus able to create an effient communication with humans thanks to the flxibility of vocalisation behaviours. This review allowed us to create a simple model of the cat vocal repertory.