Science Memes

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Interspecies linguistics (mander.xyz)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

So you're telling me that when a cat chirps when it sees a bird through the window, it's really saying "here, birdie birdie birdie" to it?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Nah, it's trying to imitate the bird and is going, "No cat here, only friend" (in terms of purpose. In reality, the cat just knows birds with y appearance come to x sound, so make x sound to make y bird maybe come, the cat doesn't understand the mechanics, just that it works)

Cats do have limited mimicry abilities - It's probably why there are so many videos of cats "speaking" human words - adapting that mostly unused mimicry skill to get the human's attention with sounds it notices humans use to get the attention of other humans

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

Cats do have limited mimicry abilities

Meows are supposedly mimicking human baby noises, definitely works to get our attention!