A new study from researchers at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and the University of Naples Federico II has uncovered an unexpected truth about cat communication. A domestic cat’s purr reveals much more about its individual identity than its meow. Meows change widely depending on context, while purring stays consistent enough to clearly distinguish one cat from another.
To reach this conclusion, scientists used automatic speech recognition techniques and analyzed recordings from the Animal Sound Archive at the Berlin Natural History Museum. They examined vocalizations from both domestic and wild cats and found that domestication has especially increased how much a cat’s meow can vary.
Why Meows Change but Purrs Stay the Same
“People pay most attention to meowing because cats mainly use these vocalizations toward us,” explains the study’s first author, Danilo Russo. “But once we examined the acoustic structure closely, the even, rhythmic purr turned out to be the better cue for identifying individual cats.”
The research team, which also included bioacoustician Mirjam Knörnschild from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, applied sound analysis tools originally designed for human speech. They asked a straightforward question: can a computer correctly match a vocal sound to the cat that produced it using sound alone? While both meows and purrs contained individual traits, purrs were far more reliable.
The Many Roles of Purring and Meowing
“Every cat in our study had its own characteristic purr,” says co-author Anja Schild. “Purring often occurs in relaxed situations, such as during petting or close contact with a familiar person. It also is used for communication between the mother and her kittens shortly after birth. Meowing, on the other hand, is famous for its versatility.”
Cats use meows in many different situations, especially when interacting with humans. They may meow to ask for food, demand attention, or even “complain.” This behavioral flexibility showed up clearly in the data, with meows displaying much greater variation within the same individual cat.
Domestication Changed the Cat’s Voice
To better understand how evolution shaped these sounds, the researchers compared domestic cat meows with those of five wild cat species: African wildcat, European wildcat, jungle cat, cheetah, and cougar. These comparisons also relied on recordings from the Animal Sound Archive at the Museum für Naturkunde.
Domestic cats stood out immediately. Their meows varied far more than those of their wild relatives, suggesting that life alongside humans reshaped how cats use their voices.
“Living with humans — who differ greatly in their routines, expectations, and responses — likely favored cats that could flexibly adjust their meows. Our results support the idea that meows have evolved into a highly adaptable tool for negotiating life in a human-dominated world,” says senior author Mirjam Knörnschild.
What Cat Sounds Reveal About Communication
Overall, the findings offer a detailed look at how cats communicate. Purrs, which are low-frequency and highly consistent, act as dependable identity signals that help cats and humans recognize familiar individuals in close social settings. Meows serve a different purpose. Rather than signaling identity, they emphasize adaptability, allowing cats to express a wide range of needs and emotions to the people they live with.
Together, these results highlight how domestication shaped the modern cat’s voice, turning the meow into a flexible communication tool while leaving the purr as a steady marker of individuality.
