Do cats sore if there are no people around?

Why do cats purr? People are used to thinking that with the help of purring, cats show that they are happy, and this may in part be true. However, our furry friends have other reasons for purring.

In what cases do cats purr?

The habit of purring develops in a cat very early, at a time when it feeds on the mother's milk, so do not think that this sound is directed solely at a person. The owners of cats are well aware that their favorites can murch in different ways, which is not surprising, because they have a whole repertoire of meowing, growling and other sounds.

The purring produced during milk sucking differs from the one you hear when the cat stretches out on your knees. Sound analysis showed that when a cat asks for food (whether it's from your mother or from a person), her purring contains a high-pitched note that looks like a scream (although not so loud). This purring can be called something like a cry of a newborn, which affects the hormonal state of the mother and makes her take care of the offspring.

When you hug a cat or press it to yourself, the purring that it produces can be called generally soothing, and acoustic analysis shows that the "scream" component is missing.

Adult cats often purr when they are in physical contact with other cats, for example, during the mating season. They can also do this when playing with an inanimate object or while eating. This means that cats can purr also alone. Nevertheless, most often they do this when they are in company with people or other cats. In such cases, purring can be a call for help, a requirement that the animal be fed or patted, or a testimony of the pleasure of communication.

Dark side

However, everything is not so simple. Veterinarians also say that cats can purr when experiencing severe pain, or even before dying. This seems illogical, if this sound is associated with pleasure, but it is possible that in this way the cat asks for help.

In addition, in some cases, with the help of purring, perhaps the cat is trying to hide the fact of its injury or vulnerability. This is understandable, because a small animal, even carnivorous, should not show weakness, which can become a signal for attack for larger predators. So, with the help of purring, the cat seems to want to say: "It's all right, I'm still at the top of the world. There's nothing to look at, go where you went. "

Can "big cats" purr?

There has been a long discussion about whether "big cats" can purr. There is a suggestion that animals from the family of felines who know how to growl (lions or tigers, for example) are not able to purr. Although there is no conclusive evidence on this issue, it seems that even such cats begin to purr when they drink mother's milk.

All mammals have a bone or row of bones in the throat, called the sublingual apparatus, whose function is to support the larynx and tongue. In representatives of the family of felines who know how to growl, the sublingual apparatus is partly composed of cartilage, while in purring species it consists entirely of bones. This modification allows "big cats" growl, but does not necessarily mean that they are not able to purr. It is believed that the cheetah, ocelot, magician, serval and lynx (like some other species) are able to purr, while the jaguar, leopard, lion and tiger can not, or they are good at hiding it.

The process of purring

The actual process of creating a purring sound is complex and has not yet been fully studied. To date, it is known that this involved larynx and diaphragm muscles, activated by bursts of nervous activity that occur in the cat's brain and occur 20-30 times a second. The cat is able to reproduce the purring both on inhalation and exhalation, which explains the continuity of this sound.

The fact that the cat is able to do all this and at the same time, paw pads, scratch the leg of a chair or play with you, makes you wonder what it could have achieved if nature had given it, for example, the same structure of the forelimbs as And in humans.