Japanese study: cats can remember their friends’ names | Home & Garden

A team of Japanese researchers, whose lead researcher is affiliated with Kyoto University, already stated in 2019 in the journal Scientific Reports that cats know their own name and some 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, the scientists examined the behavior of 48 cats that lived with other cats of their own kind; 29 of those cats lived in cat cafes, 19 lived with people who have at least two other cats.

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

What turned out? The house cats stared longer at the photo of the “wrong” cat, which the researchers say shows that they were struggling with the fact that the picture and the name being called didn’t belong together. “We have shown that cats expect a specific face when hearing the specific name of a companion,” conclude the Japanese. “This study provides evidence that cats link a companion’s name and its face without explicit training.”

It is striking that the animals from the cat cafe paid less attention to the wrong combination of the photo and the audio fragment. According to the researchers, this suggests that cafe cats are less close to their feline friends than house cats and are less often referred to by name.

Interesting as this may sound, the researchers admit that their study is not 100% foolproof. Not all cats were equally eager to participate in the study. One cat wasn’t even allowed to participate, simply because he didn’t feel like it. “He kept trying to escape from the room.”