More than just a purr

I came across this really cool cat fact and I thought I would share it with you, from one cat lover to another.

Cats are not the only animals that purr!

It is found that even hyenas, raccoons and guinea pigs purr.

The funny thing is that cats that purr cannot roar like their larger relatives, and vice versa. Cats that have evolved to roar move around a lot more than the domestic cat therefore have developed their roar to protect their pride and territory. 

Our domestic cats on the other hand move around less, do not have to compete for survival and mark their territory through scent.

A study from the University of Sussex found that a cat's purr peaks in the 220- to 520-hertz frequency range embedded in the lower frequencies of the usual purr similar to that of a babies' cry with a frequency range at 300 to 600 hertz. This frequency, so like a babies', causes us to feel the need to nurture our cat like an offspring.

Elizabeth von Muggenthaler, a bioacoustics researcher, believes that cats not only purr to communicate but also discovered that the animals’ purrs all fit into the range for anabolic bone growth. The cat's purring frequencies between 24-140 vibrations per minute are therapeutic for bone growth, pain relief and wound healing.

Studies from the University of Minnesota Stroke Center show that cats are able to relieve stress and lower blood pressure better than other pets. A 10-year study found that cat owners were 40% less likely to have heart attacks than non-cat owners. Do you think that purring had a role to play in that?