4 Cute Little Kittens Stop to Listen to Street Singer
A Malaysian street singer Jass Pangkor Buskers was already a little discouraged because almost no one had stopped to listen to the music he was making on the sidewalk when, a group of 4 three-month-old little kittens stopped to honor him.
The video is so interesting because, in some moments of the music, the animals follow the song as if they were dancing. The man who recorded the video commented on the scene: “Suddenly, the kittens sat in front of him as if they wanted to give their support,” he says.
In addition, he said: “They stayed until the end of the performance and the street singer thanked the animal audience. The artist posted the video on his Facebook page and people soon started commenting like Juzaini Mohamad Khari: “These cats know good music when they here it.”
But do all cats like music?
Researchers have shown that a good melody can have the same calming effect for cats that we experience when listening to harmonious music. However, the taste of cats is certainly not the same as ours.
To find out if cats responded to music, scientists at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Maryland, both in the United States, wrote cat-specific songs.
“We study the natural vocalizations of cats and combine music to the same frequency range, about an octave or higher than the range of human voices,” explains study lead author Charles Snowdon, a psychologist who works at the University of London. Wisconsin-Madison.
Because human music often mimics the rhythm of our heartbeat, the team replicated the rhythm of things that cats might find interesting in their songwriting – the researchers created music out of the “imitation” of natural sounds in cat lives, and with action-based pacing such as kitten feeding and purring.
The reaction of cats
The researchers played the songs to 47 domestic cats, and watched how the cats reacted when they listened to them, compared to when they listened to two classical human songs – Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Air” and Gabriel Fauré’s “Elegie.”
The cats simply did not respond to human music. But when the music made especially for them began to play, the animals became alert and approached the speakers, often rubbing their scent glands over them, meaning they were trying to claim the object for themselves.
Snowdon says there are two goals to this, one of them being the question of whether there is any effect on leaving music on for cats when they leave the house, as many people have this habit.
The second is to prove a theory that says that species other than humans can enjoy music and enjoy it as long as they are reproduced at the frequencies that animals use to communicate.
Still according to scientists, using harmonious song versions, research may offer new ways to keep cats calm in animal and veterinary shelters, for example. And beyond the therapeutic side, the study also provides a fascinating insight into melodies geared toward different animal species.
One of the coauthors, David Teie, had previously shown that monkeys also respond differently to music composed especially for them. The team now hopes that their study will provide a framework for composing melodies for more animal species.
What do you think about music for pets, let us know on the comments.
