Why do
cats meow?

The full narration of the video.

Two cats can share a home for years and almost never meow at each other. But the moment you open the door, one of them meows right at you. So why do cats meow? Let's test a few guesses.

Guess one: meowing is how cats talk to other cats. Actually, grown cats mostly greet each other with smells, raised tails and a touch of the nose. When they do make noise, it's usually a hiss in a fight. When they're friendly, at most a short little trill.

So guess one is out. Then where does the meow come from? From kittens. When a kitten is hungry, cold or lost, it meows. Its mother hears it and comes back to look after it.

Once the kitten grows up and leaves its mother, that call almost disappears between cats. Guess two: cats are simply born to meow at people. Let's compare the house cat with its wild cousin, the African wildcat. Scientists recorded both and compared them. The wildcat's call is long and low, while the house cat's meow is shorter and higher.

When people listened, almost everyone found the house cat's meow far more pleasant. Even street cats that rarely deal with people meow in a lower voice than pet cats. So the meow isn't fixed at birth. It gets shaped by living with people.

Here's the answer: cats keep the call they used for their mother, and save it just for you. It meows, and you respond: food, an open door, a pat. So it learns that this sound works. To your cat, you're a bit like the mother who always turned around.

Over time, there's one meow for food, and another for the door. In one small study, four in ten owners read their own cat's meows better than chance. With someone else's cat, not one of them could. Some cats go even further. When they want food, they hide a high little cry inside the purr, pitched a lot like a baby's cry.

That's a sound people find very hard to ignore. Next time your cat meows at you, don't guess right away. Follow it a few steps and see where it takes you. Which meow does your cat use on you the most? Tell us in the comments.