Vocal recognition of owners by domestic cats

Saito and Shinozuka used a habituation-dishabituation design to ask whether cats distinguish their owner's voice from strangers' voices. Cats heard recordings of three strangers calling the cat's name followed by the owner, or the reverse, while the experimenters scored orienting responses such as ear, head and pupil movements. Cats responded more strongly, showing renewed attention, when the owner's voice appeared after strangers', indicating they recognized and discriminated the familiar voice. Notably, cats rarely moved toward the speaker, displaying recognition through subtle orienting rather than overt approach, which the authors linked to the species' history of self-domestication and relatively independent social style. The study provided experimental evidence that cats attend to and individually recognize their owners by voice, even if they do not always show it through obvious behaviour.