Location over voice: cues used by cat mothers to return to their kittens

Distinguishing between own and alien young is an important part of mammalian maternal behaviour. The mechanisms and the sensory cues involved depend on the species' natural ecology and have been particularly well studied in herd- and colony-living species. However, research in solitary-living carnivores, where mothers typically hide their altricial young, is largely lacking. We studied vocal individuality of separation cries of kittens of the domestic cat, Felis silvestris catus , and examined whether mothers distinguished between the vocalizations of their own and alien kittens under seminatural conditions. We tested 13 domestic cat mothers when their kittens were 3 and 6 weeks old to determine whether vocal or spatial cues influenced the mothers' approach by playing back separation cries, either from their own or alien kittens, broadcast either from the nest or from a different location. We found no evidence that mothers discriminated between the cries of their own and alien kittens, despite considerable vocal individuality among them. When the kittens were 3 weeks old, mothers were immediately alerted by playbacks of separation cries, whether from their own or alien kittens, and whether played from the nest or another location, but mainly approached the playbacks when they originated from their nest. When the kittens were 6 weeks old, mothers increasingly approached playbacks from different locations, although still without differentiating between cries based on the callers’ identities. We conclude that this pattern of maternal response aligns well with the ecology of this naturally solitary, obligate carnivore and the developmental stages of its young.