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Comment by arethuza | Hacker News Reader

What I find fascinating is the ability our cat has to mimic a crying baby - this really upsets my wife. As I am the main cat servant in our household when our cat wants services (food, cuddle etc.) it complains to my wife who then issues the relevant orders to me.

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I've heard this for years with the concept that the cat's vocal range developed to be like this. But not once had I ever heard a cat sound anything unlike a cat. Until...my recent adopted fur baby. He freaks me out how much like a kid he sounds. Just the other day, he let out a sound that even my coworkers on a meeting call thought I had a kid. It's a little unsettling at times

Mine has learned exactly what corners to yell into such that their cry/meow echoes and reverberates everywhere so it can't be ignored. It's kind of impressive how smart and adaptable cats are, lol.

It's not even necessarily aimed at us. Mountain lions and bobcats can sound remarkably human and I'd be shocked if they ever had enough human prey for that to be intentional.

>I'd be shocked if they ever had enough human prey for that to be intentional.

this just made me think of the movie Annihilation where the bear like creature got a human like voice. that would definitely make a walk in the woods a lot more creepy.

I've heard coyotes make a sound like a crying child (I was in a nature preserve and went to the source until I saw it) so there is some cross species commonality in sound for some reason and there is evidence for recognition of crying baby primates by crocodiles. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/nile-crocodile...

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