Domestic Cat (Felis catus) Responses to Bird Sounds

Overview

Objectives/Goals The purpose of my experiment was to find out if domestic cats would recognize all bird sounds as coming from potential prey or only ones that the cats were familiar with. Methods/Materials Thirty-two domestic cats were tested to see if they would respond to three different bird sounds. Two of the sounds were from non-local birds and the other was from a local bird. Each call was played on a computer in random order for three minutes or until the cats responded. I considered the cats to be responsive if they searched for the birds. Student t-tests were preformed to find out if the ages in the cats that did or did not respond to the local bird were significantly different and if there was a significant age difference between the male and female cats. Results My study supports my hypothesis that domestic cats are attracted to local bird sounds and not to non-local bird sounds. Conclusions/Discussion I think the reason that cats responded to the local bird sounds and not to the non-local bird sounds is that to recognize them as potential prey, cats have to come into contact with the bird.

Awards (1)

• Honorable Mention

Competition history

• CSEF 2007 Mammalian Biology · Entry J1119

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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