Cats Exhibit Pupil Dilation as a Communicative Preference Towards Owners

Pet owners, you know who you are.

You're the one singing to your cat while stacking the book case; or repeatedly trying to gain your dog's interest in a new plastic cheeseburger that you just bought from Petco while squeaking it and throwing it across the floor. (Meanwhile, your dog just sits there and looks at you.) 

In any case, for cat lovers, a new study shows that cats may not always do what you want them to, but these guys actually make clear distinctions between onlookers and their caretakers voices and appearances.

In fact, according to co-athor of the study Atsuko Saito of the University of Tokyo, via Discovery News, dogs have evolved and are bred "to follow their owner's orders, but cats have not been.  So sometimes cats appear aloof, but they have special relationships with their owners."

The study involved examining the natural behavior of cats at home with their owners, during which researchers played recordings of strangers, as well as of the cats' owners, to the felines.

The cats responded to human voices, not by communicative behavior, but by vocalizing or moving their tails.

They also moved their head and ears at the sound of the sources voice, along with pupil dilation, which displays a sign of emotions, such as arousal or excitement.

"Previous studies suggest that cats have evolved to behave like kittens (around their owners), and humans treat cats similar to the way that they treat babies," co-author Kazutaka Shinozuka of the University of South Florida College of Medicine added, via Discovery News. "To form such baby-parent like relationships, recognition of owners might be important for cats." 

If you're a cat owner, make sure to give a comment on what you think. 

The study will be published in the July issue of Animal Cognition.