Research overview: chirps, trills and the feline ethogram

Beyond the familiar meow and purr, cats produce chirps, trills and chatters that figure in greeting, excitement and predatory contexts. This overview surveys efforts to build ethograms, systematic catalogues of cat behaviours and vocalizations, that document these sounds and the situations in which they occur. It examines the friendly trill used in greetings and mother-kitten interaction, the chattering or chirping often seen when cats watch prey through a window, and how such signals fit alongside postures and facial expressions in the full communicative picture. The survey discusses the value of standardized ethograms for research and welfare work, enabling consistent description and comparison of behaviour across studies, and it highlights the breadth of the feline communicative toolkit beyond its best-known elements.