Maine Coons can understand their name and the names of four other cats when spoken by humans

-

I have stated in the title that Maine Coons can understand their name and the names of four other cats if they live in a group, for example, in a multi-cat home. But I've been a bit cheeky because the statement that I have made applies to any domestic cat. I just wanted to write an article about Maine Coons and this study which has been reported on the Internet recently presented itself to me at an opportune moment. 😎 I stated in the title "when spoken by humans". That might look a bit odd but it is just possible that cats refer to each other by name! No one's discussed that.

However, the point that I would like to make early on in this article is that I knew about this well before the Japanese scientists confirmed it in their study. And I'm not boasting because any decent cat caregiver understands that their cat responds to their name. If they live in a multi-cat home then they will also understand that each of those cats can understand their name. I'm not saying this happens universally all the time but, in general, it will. 

The response, however, is dependent upon a good human-to-cat relationship and a consistent use of the cat's name when calling them and talking to them.

William (man) and Wallace.
William and Wallace. Photo: Katrina Stewart.

This shouldn't really surprise people. However, we are used to reading reports and studies about dogs and we know how good dogs are at understanding their name and coming on demand.

People don't really consider cats to be as good at it. They are not as good at it but they are pretty good nonetheless.

Another point which is worth making - in fact it is essential to make this point - is that cats don't understand their name as a name but as a sound.

I will quote the scientists verbatim: "We conclude that cats can discriminate the content of human utterances based upon phonemic differences".

The word phoneme means "any of the perceptually distinct units of sound in a specified language that distinguish one word from another".

In this Japanese study they used domestic cats in homes and cat café cats. Café cats live in larger groups than domestic cats in a home and they are normally rescue cats.

They found that domestic cats in a home were able to discriminate their own names from other cohabiting cats' names whereas the cat café cats were unable to discriminate their own names from the names of other cats. Therefore, cat café cats were simply responding to a call which could apply to any of the cats.

In the study, the domestic cats in homes had a more refined sensitivity towards the call of a name because they were able to discriminate "their own names from general nouns even when unfamiliar persons out of them".

RELATED: Fancy Names For Maine Coon Cats.

As cats recognise their names through the sound of the name, the name itself is unimportant to them. We name our cat for ourselves; for our pleasure and enjoyment. To a cat the name could simply be any utterance without any meaning as long as it is stated consistently in the same way when calling.

Gloria Stephens in her book Legacy of the Cat tells us about her experiences of living with a Maine Coon. She says that some Maine Coons "develop such a strong attachment to their female owners that they become recalcitrant when the female owner is away".

A strong attachment to a cat owner is going to benefit both cat and owner in terms of calling them by their name. I suspect, however, that the Maine Coon is particularly good at understanding their name and perhaps the names of four other cats in the household.

I also suspect, by the way, that the number four is the upper limit for a cat to remember different names. Domestic cats, however, do have decent memories especially long-term memories. We know this because there are many stories on the Internet of cats lost for many years who recognise their owners when they rejoin them.

The study is titled: Domestic cats (Felis catus) discriminate their names from other words and it can be accessed by clicking on this link. The observed 48 cats and the scientists operate out of Kyoto University.

    Comments

    Post a Comment

    Please share your Maine Coon experiences.

    Popular posts from this blog

    The extreme Maine Coon face

    -
    Image
    This is an example of extreme breeding. This is a Maine Coon but this cat is an extreme and rare example of this breed. This is not the way they look normally. This face is almost like an aggressive robot with the piercing eyes and the huge muzzle.  Or like a lion's head. The head looks enormous and very heavy. It looks unreal. But it also looks very impressive.  And purchasers like impressive-looking domestic cats. But this not the face of a Maine Coon that wins cat show competitions as it does not fit the breed standard as accurately as the more moderate winners (see below).  In fact, the CFA standard is clear in that the cat should have a balanced appearance although this cat was not bred under the CFA breed standard as I understand it (see below).  Click here for more on the kind of MC which wins at shows . Maine Coon selectively breed to have an extreme face. Image in the public domain. And the Maine Coon is meant to be a large cat, the largest domestic cat b...
    Read more

    No part of a Maine Coon cat should be exaggerated

    -
    Image
    It is interesting to read that the premier cat association, the CFA (Cat Fanciers' Association) - the cat association which really dictates (with TICA) how Maine Coons should look - makes it clear that no part of the cat should be exaggerated, and the cat should be "well-proportioned and balanced".  In other words, any form of extreme appearance such as a particularly heavy muzzle or particularly large ears with extra-long lynx tips are not going to be seen as advantageous in terms of winning cat shows or in terms of having an ideal appearance. As soon as I read that no part of a Maine Coon should be exaggerated, I immediately thought of the extremely large, extreme-bred Maine Coon cats that often come from Russia. These cats have very heavy muzzles.  Lion-faced Maine Coon with exaggerated features. Image in public domain now. In fact, their heads look like the heads of lions. I get the impression that breeders have selectively bred their cats over years to look like male...
    Read more

    Eerie picture of a Maine Coon sitting like a human on a chest of drawers

    -
    Image
    This is a slightly scary picture according to those who've seen it. One social media user said it was the devil and "If I walked into a room and saw that, I would assume some shit is about to go down". There is a ghostly stillness and sinister feeling about the image. 'Eerie' is a better description. This attractive cat appears to be completely at ease and comfortable sitting on top of a chest of bedroom drawers. The lighting from below (deliberate?) enhances the eerie effect. It seems possible that this is a photo-edited image but if so, it has been done with great skill. However, I don't think this is Photoshopped. Rethink: to be honest, the more I look at the picture, the more I feel that this is a photo-edited image. It is just too unnatural to be real. Although some domestic cats get themselves into some very strange positions. Maine Coon calmly sitting just like a human on a chest of drawers. Picture source unclear. Image deemed to be in the public d...
    Read more

    Black smoke Maine Coon Richie with a black face and diamond eyes

    -
    Image
    Black smoke Maine Coon Richie with a black face and diamond eyes. Photo: Instagram. OMG, this is a Maine Coon with an amazing face. His full name is "Richie du Mont d’Even". I think he has a black smoke coat which has created this black face with the assistance of other genes (polygenetic influence?) and ears with piercing, diamond eyes. This is a very special cat. Richie looked very interesting but relatively plain as a kitten. Image: Instagram. His paws are balls of fluff. He has a mane that goes over his head like a halo. He's angelic and other-worldly. The lynx tips on the end of his ears are smoky grey which makes them stand out. They are a bit like the opposite to the black lynx tips of the wild caracal.  He lives in France with his human: Adriana Piraino. He was born on 7th November 2020. He is still very young. They say Maine Coons reach adulthood at around the age of 4. He is going to be enormous as well. Richie with Adriana. Photo: Instagram Richie was bred b...
    Read more

    Comparison of a black smoke Maine Coon at 6 weeks and 6-years-of-age

    -
    Image
    This is a cross-post as the image is so damned good. It is amazing because the cat is amazing. To put the same cat at different stages of their life in the same photograph is a nice idea especially with this Maine Coon (MC) who has an amazingly heavy face. It is so mightily masculine to be almost unbelievable. He has a priceless expression on his face too. Very serious compared to the innocence of his face when he was 6 weeks old. He looks a bit coy when 6 weeks old and a slightly grumpy middle-aged man when 6 years old. Comparison of a black smoke Maine Coon at 6-weeks and 6-years-of-age. Image in pubic domain. No doubt he is huge too. You get a clear sense of that in the image. There is a serious and less impressive side to this image. It's the backstory that people don't really want to read about and discuss or in fact do anything about: heart ( HCM ) and joint disease. The bigger and heavier the MCs are the more predisposed to heart disease they are. Here is the posts on...
    Read more

    Parisian Maine Coon 'crème et blanc'

    -
    Image
    PARIS: This is a handsome Parisian Maine Coon described by his human caretaker as: "My little lynx Jiyuu of Roswell Maine Coon crème et blanc 19 mois mâle". The translation is: his name is Jiyuu of Roswell. His coat is cream and white. He is 19 months old. Oh, and his is damned handsome. The photo is by his guardian: Lunatique- girl . Cream and white Maine Coon living in Paris, France. Photo: Lunatique Girl. It is a really nice Maine Coon photo of a really nice Maine Coon with an interesting coat colour. I think the main colour is more milk chocolate, cappuccino or fawn! Anyway, super-looking cat. Is he a cream tabby? I think so.
    Read more

    Maine Coon size versus dog size?

    -
    Image
    People want to know how the size of the Maine Coon compares to the size of a dog. You probably realise that it is impossible to answer this question because dog size varies enormously. This is due to selective breeding over about 20 years or more. And, it has to be said, the size of the Maine Coon also varies considerably.  A Beagle versus a large Maine Coon comparing size. Image: MikeB based on images in the public domain. Here is another image comparing a Beagle and a standard Maine Coon from a YouTube video: Standard Maine Coon versus a Beagle comparing size. Screenshot. Small-to-medium-sized dog compared to a Maine Coon size. Image in public domain. This looks like a small Maine Coon. And here is a Golden Retriever and Maine Coon playing. This dog breed is quite large: People get the impression that all Maine Coons are always huge but they are not. Maine Coons can be a little larger than standard domestic cats (small female for instance) but in general they are considerably ...
    Read more

    2 top Russian Maine Coon cat breeders which ship internationally

    -
    Image
    I am writing this from the West; specifically, near London, UK. There will be quite a few people living in the West who'd like to adopt a Maine Coon cat and they would like to adopt one from a Russian breeder because they do have a certain style.  I sense, although I don't have hard evidence to support this feeling, that the top Russian breeders of Maine Coon cats might be superior to breeders from other countries.  I am putting aside Putin's invasion of Ukraine when writing this article. Some people might object to dealing in anyway with a Russian business on account of that barbaric and illegal invasion. We should remember that Russia has quite a strong cat fancy. They like their cats and they love their purebred cats particularly the Maine Coon. It is in fact a cat breed which is quite naturally suited to the Russian way of life and climate. There's lots of space in Russia with a relatively low population and therefore there are going to be houses with large grounds ...
    Read more

    5 Maine Coon transformations from kitten to adult (video)

    -
    Image
    Maine Coon kitten and his adult self. Photo: Robert Silka. This is a series of photographs by the very famous Maine Coon photographer: robert_sijka. I think he presents his photographs too dark as there is not enough information in the photographs for my liking but he takes great photographs of great Maine Coon cats. In this series he photographs a kitten and their adult version. Each individual cat is a wonderful example of the Maine Coon breed. I can count five examples. In my experience, these Google Blogger videos only work if you click the centre play button and then, immediately afterwards, the play button bottom-left! It sounds bad but the short video is worth watching.
    Read more

    Difference between Maine Coon and domestic long hair

    -
    Image
    The difference between a Maine Coon cat and a domestic longhaired cat comes down to the fact that the former has been artificially bred (selective breeding) whereas the latter has usually procreated according to natural selection. Natural selection is random breeding and therefore the domestic longhair is a random-bred cat whereas, selective breeding produces a purebred, pedigree cat registered with a cat association.  Difference between Maine Coon and domestic long hair. Infographic by MikeB. And because each individual Maine Coon cat is registered with a cat association, if they are in genuine Maine Coon, their appearance should comply with the association's breed standard . The breed standard tells breeders what their Maine Coon cats should look like in order that they can win cat show competitions if they want to enter their cat into these competitions. And so, as the appearance of Maine Coon cats is moulded to the guidance of a breed standard (see a section below from the...
    Read more