If your cat has ever meowed along to your favorite pop song, it’s probably not because he liked it. That music was designed in pitches and tempos that humans enjoy, so your cat is, at best, likely indifferent to your tunes (and, at worst, maybe tortured by them). Now, two psychologists at University of Wisconsin and a composer at University of Maryland have teamed up to make songs especially for your felines, with beats in the frequency range that they use to communicate with each other—and while the songs might sound unsettling to humans, research indicates that cats dig it.
The music is part of a larger project to create tunes for many members of the animal kingdom; the team has also created music for tamarin monkeys, which had a soothing effect on the creatures. The researchers hope that this species-specific music will enrich the lives of animals in captivity.
via Mental Floss
March 6, 2015