The lion is called the king of the jungle. Whenever the most dangerous animals are talked about, people often first name animals like lion, cheetah. But do you know that these lions, tigers, leopards belonging to the cat species can recognize human voices. You must be wondering how such dangerous animals can recognize human voices? But research has revealed that animals belonging to the cat species can recognize the voices of different humans.
Animals belonging to the cat species
Among animals, it is said that pets understand the difference between the voices of their owners and other humans and animals. But a study has revealed that big cats like tiger, cheetah and cougar can also understand the difference between the voices of familiar and unfamiliar humans. Many such animals respond quickly to unfamiliar voices.
According to a study published in the journal PeerJ Life and Environment, even animals that usually avoid living in groups have social skills. This research included various species of exotic cats living in zoos and nature reserves. After conducting a preliminary study with 7 cats of 5 species, research was conducted on 24 cats of 10 species including lions, tigers, clouded leopards, snow leopards and servals.
During this, the researchers played each cat an audio recording of 3 unfamiliar human voices followed by a familiar voice and another unfamiliar voice. The research found that beyond parenting, big cats responded more quickly and for a longer period of time to a familiar voice than to 4 unfamiliar voices. Jennifer Vonk, co-author of this study, said that the results were very clear.
Professor Jennifer Vonk of Oakland University in Michigan state of America said that social ability is necessary in wild animals to recognize their offspring and monitor their living place. Research has found that the ability to recognize individual human voices is not only found in pets, but can also develop due to regular contact with humans. However, she also said that this was a small sample research. The result may be different if research is done on a large scale.
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