Meows encode less individual information than purrs and show greater variability in domestic than in wild cats

Abstract

Domestication has shaped animal vocal behaviour, increasing flexibility and responsiveness to humans. In domestic cats ( Felis catus ), two vocalisations, meows and purrs, have distinct communicative roles. Meows are context-dependent signals primarily directed at humans; purrs are stereotyped, low-frequency sounds produced in affiliative contexts. Vocal individuality, key in mammalian communication, supports social recognition and interaction, but its presence across cats’ call types remains poorly understood. We examined whether cats encode individual identity in meows and purrs, hypothesising that meows might show stronger signatures due to their human-directed nature. We analysed 276 meows from 14 cats and 557 purrs from 21 cats. Both call types carried sufficient individual information, but purrs had significantly higher classification accuracy (84.6%) and encoded more information content (4.47 bit) than meows (63.2%, 2.65 bit). To place individuality in a domestication framework, we compared domestic cat meows with those of five wild relatives: African wildcat, European wildcat, jungle cat, cheetah, and cougar. Domestic cat meows showed greater acoustic dispersion than those of wild cats, reflecting increased vocal plasticity through domestication. These findings demonstrate how domestication has shaped feline vocalisations, with purrs acting as stable identity cues and meows emphasising flexibility over recognisability.