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Natives of the Amazonian jungle tell tales about cats that imitate the sounds of its prey to lure birds, monkeys or rodents into their clutches - and now researchers have recounted how the sneaky strategy works.
This tale, published in the June 2009 issue of Neotropical Primates, involves a margay cat that made baby monkey sounds in hopes of snagging a pied tamarin or two. But don't worry: No animals were hurt in the making of this research. The tamarins got away unharmed, thanks to a savvy sentry.
The journal paper's authors say their account was the first scientific publication to support the folk stories about Amazonian copycats. "Cats are known for their physical agility, but this vocal manipulation of prey species indicates a psychological cunning that merits further study," Fabio Rohe, a researcher with the Wildlife Conservation Society, said in a news release issued Wednesday.
A. Antunes
Pied tamarins serve as prey for the Amazonian margay cat.
The cat-and-monkey encounter unfolded in Brazil's Reserva Florestal Adolpho Ducke in October 2005, while Rohe and his colleagues were remotely monitoring eight squirrel-sized pied tamarins feeding in a ficus tree. The sounds of tamarin babies in distress rang out from behind a clump of tangled vines. An adult male monkey climbed up and down the tree, trying to identify the source of the sound. In the meantime, the researchers saw where it was coming from: a margay cat, making its way toward the monkeys.
The sentinel monkey dropped to the ground, keeping watch. Within minutes, four more monkeys followed. But as the cat closed in, the sentinel suddenly realized what was going on and emitted a high-pitched warning scream. The whole group of monkeys scattered, and the cat went away empty-pawed.
Researchers came away impressed - not only with the cat's strategy and the monkeys' vigilance, but also with the way the encounter verified what they were hearing from local residents. Other cats are said to imitate types of rodents known as agoutis and tinamou birds.
"This observation further proves the reliability of information obtained from Amazonian inhabitants," said Avecita Chicchon, director of WCS-Latin America. "Accounts of jaguars and pumas using the same vocal mimicry to attract prey also deserve investigation."
For more about this research, check out Brian Switek's April report on the Laelaps blog. Unfortunately, Rohe and his colleagues couldn't capture audio of the margay's monkey call - it all happened too fast. But you can hear a margay's growl, courtesy of The Cat House, and watch a National Geographic video of a margay facing off with a black-handed spider monkey.
Other authors of the paper, "Hunting Strategy of the Margay (Leopardus wiedii) to Attract the Wild Pied Tamarin (Saguinus bicolor)," include Fabiano de Oliveira Calleia and Marcelo Gordo of Projeto Sauim-de-Coleira / Federal University of Amazonas.
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That's a beautiful putty tat! But then I've never seen any species of feline that wasn't.
1) Felines and primates are very agile and cunning. Just look at us primates. Most people realize why some primates evolved, I'm talking humans now. We know that that's it for the rest of the primates, including the great apes (not us). In other words, we have the humans in one corner and we have the other primates in the other corner. And neither the twain shall meet, so to speak. Anyway...
2) Basically any species over time will find new ways to eat, if man doesn't encroach on their lives and disrupt the natural flow of evolving, (meaning that they find new ways to eat and hunt, not turn into humans). It's complex but then so easy a cave man could figure it out.
A great article. I'm glad the researchers were finally able to verify the legends.
Whoa there... aren't dogs supposed to be the smart ones? Ahem.
Could never completely trust my feline Aristotle, skulking around on dead silent paws with a penchant for mysteriously turning up at the most unexpected places at the most unexpected moments and scaring me half to death...and the way he sometimes sits on the window ledge, tail slowly swishing back and forth as he stares at me with his head cocked at an angle and a contemplative gleam in his eye is surely cause for concern... Like he's taken out an insurance policy on me, or something...
I love my cat!
My cat brought a lizard yesterday for my lunch. Luckily Leo wasn't dead so I rescued him and hid him from the great white cat with grey spots..........
I wish they would lure Bin Laden to his doom!
I wish one would lure Bin Laden to his doom! Getting eaten would be better than most deaths for that jerk!
This is a form of aggressive mimicry not previously reported, to my knowledge. Most other known forms of aggressive mimicry appear to be genetically determined. One has to wonder whether this is part of the evolved hunting behavior of the species (Felis weidi) or just something that this individual thought up. If the latter and if it is effective, come back in a hundred years of so and see if it is still around.
The behavior of these cats have been reported by the natives for yrs., so I doubt it's something that one individual cat just thought up. It's probably "evolved" from litter to litter and now, not only can they mimic birds and rodents, but monkeys as well. There's one thing about felines, they can take down something bigger than themselves, especially when working as a team. But this species is probably a loner, like jaguars. When animals find out what works better, they begin to fine tune it, so to speak--just like humans and my cat, Peaches. The old girl picked out my husband, sort of. :-)
Common house cats outside my window, either fighting or in heat are eerily vocal. Not to say that they are imitating anything like in the above story, but it sure is weird and provocative.
The species known as politianius liarus also does this to prey on unsuspecting humans known as voters.
The intelligence of all cats is amazing. Many housecats, while retaining that incredible intelligence, have generally lost much of their "prey" instincts through breeding and generations of an indoor lifestyle. Our three indoor-only cats are afraid of spiders, they apparently have picked up my phobia. They have a strong aversion to the mice who occasionally invade their space because of our rural proximity to heavy woods. The strongest instinct that even comes close to their ancestors and wild relatives is their gently biting and kicking their catnip toys. The survival instincts of their distant relatives through vocal manipulation is really quite practical and clever. Nice to learn something new about these wonderful beings.
Very impressive indeed. We must have a relook at how we described these animals.
Living with cats for 35 years, I have heard some Meows that would be catagorized as a mourning call. One of our male cats.. who was very close to his sisters had a mournful meow when one of the sister decided to go in the house.. He had meowed like that for at least 10 minutes. it was awful.. But he didnt realize.. the sister was still alive.. Just not with him.. and he felt a great loss. it was a close knit set of siblings who slept together andplayed together.
By the way.. I LOVE kitties of all sizes.. cats still have their instincts.. when they bring home a half dead bird or mouse.. they are showing you they can still hunt.. Its not malicious at all. its their nature.
If a domesticated cat can understand 20 or so words of the human language, it is not that far a stretch of the imagination to believe a feral cat, regardless of size, could mimick the sounds of other animals, much like the mockingbird.
I've heard our cat (domestic shorthair) imitate birds on the feeder outside our window before. A "cooing" sound for doves, and a "cack cack" sound if a grackle was out there...
Thanks Alan, very interesting, but not surprising. I'm a "dog person" and have never owned a cat so I'm not able to comment on feline behavior but there is a saying among dog trainers that "dogs do what works" and sometimes their behaviors can be quite complicated and sophisticated to get what they want.
My dogs are herding breeds (Bearded Collies) and they are very smart. They had to be because they often tended their flock without human supervision. They kept the flock together, protected them from predators and gathered them in and brought to back to their pen at night. I have worked livestock with my dogs and they are amazing.
When my dog wants something like my attention or she wants to go outside and play with her frisbee she'll come and lay her head in my lap and look at me with those big blue puppy eyes, put her paw on my arm and look longingly at me. She has learned (and trained me) that this behavior will melt my heart and I'll stop whatever it is I'm doing and go play frisbee (or whatever) with her.
Dogs do what works.
My dog, Honey, has an enormous english vocabularly and understands most of what is said around her. She's probably got 75 or 100 words that she fully understands. It is amazing.
The same is almost certainly true for cats.
Our old 18 yr old cat became jealous of the baby. She very soon started to "cry" like him in order to get attention. There were many a wee hours of the morning that she woke me up for whatever she wanted with that trick. It took a couple of weeks to be able to discern the two cries from one another, especially through a monitor.
I'm wondering why it said "But don't worry: No animals were hurt in the making of this research."?
Should anyone be worried? Wild animals eat other wild animals? Will PETA start boycotting the Margay now because it eats monkeys?
Poor cat didn't get its dinner.
cats are much more intelligent than they let on. and they know it too. always the cunning hunter.
if you keep em well fed they dont need to hunt. skip a meal or 2 and i bet they will go out looking for something to kill and eat. and they might even bring their spoils to you as a present.
I definitely don't know it all when it comes to cats, or anything else. But I've learned some things that can help cats get to a ripe, old age.
Even if your cat is an indoor cat like mine (who's 13), they have to have yearly exams just like people. They can basically develop any health problem that people do, such as thyroid, kidney, liver, heart problems, etc. They can also get diabetes. And they need their teeth cleaned every couple of yrs. (maybe more for some cats who don't get the benefits of dry food.) A vet has to do this because they have to sedate them.
Milk isn't really good for adults cats either. It can irritate their digestive system.
P.S. Peaches has always been an indoor cat but we try to find things that keep her mind and body active. When we get her a new toy or she finds something that you wouldn't think she'd be interested in, she's tries to break it's "neck" by going for the jugular and shaking it. So a lot of an animal's behavior is pure instinct.
It reminds me of Politicians, to win election they mimic the voters cries of freedom and less taxation.