Cat Expert needed

I hope this is the right Forum for this.

I'm in a debate with someone who says a cat has 100 vocal chords.

I say it's more realistic that a cat has 100 vocalizations.
Can someone help me out with this? I googled this a number of times,
and am getting responses that point to both theories.
But I think I am correct.

100 vocal chords seems highly unlikely to me..


Mods, feel free to relocate this thread if I'm in the wrong place.

Thanks in advance.

Space

I'm not a biology student but I've had cats my whole life. 100 vocalizations sounds right. Meows to blurbs. As to the biology, have to ask someone else.

How many vocal chords does a Human typically have? I am inclined to think that if a domestic feline had 100 vocal chords their speech capability would either meet or exceed our ablities. 100 vocalizations or elements in a sound palette sounds more like the case. Again I am no biologist, alas the first question, but I have owned many cats before. They are indeed very flexible with the types of meows they have, but are still limited in some ways. hope that helps...

A cat has one Larynx, i.e. vocal cords.

To my knowledge no animal has more than one larynx.

If you really want to see for yourself the following link has a slide show of a disected cat. On page 28 it shows the one larynx.

learning.mgccc.cc.ms.us...

[edit on 14-7-2004 by Quest]

Thanks, yeah.
Both replies have helped!

I'm also looking for a diagram, or something.
I'm searching myself..But if anyone has a good resource.
I'm trying to disprove this to someone who Mass-emailed
a lot of people, at my place of work..He also has his finger on the
pulse of my continued employment LOL..So, I have to be diplomatic..

Quest, thanks! good resources.


[edit on 14-7-2004 by spacedoubt]

I think the problem is the spelling of the word, but because I do not know english very well maybe I'm wrong.
Cats only have 1 vocal cord, like humans, and they can do produce a lot of different sounds.
As far as I know, a chord is a sound composed of more than one note, so a cat can make a lot of chords.

I dont know if this is the solution to your question, but it sounds good

Don't humans have 2 vocal cords??

Originally posted by stephq
Don't humans have 2 vocal cords??

Hi stephq
You're correct.
"The vocal cords, also known as vocal folds, are composed of twin infoldings of mucous membrane stretched horizontally across the human larynx."
en.wikipedia.org...

Sanc'.

Jaguars have four vocal folds; I'd expect most felines have the same number:
www.jaguares.com.ar...

(interesting article on cats and purring: lynx.uio.no... )

100 vocalizations is about the correct number, I believe. But not 100 vocal cords. There wouldn't be room for anything else in there after you installed that! (you'd have to reboot the cat and run uninstall... erm... nevermind. Too many software "issues" today with a program that someone wrote.)

[edit on 15-7-2004 by Byrd]

BYRD..LOL

Whats also funny is a Giraffe, has ZERO, plenty of room to install more than THAT..

Thanks everyone for all your help...I finalized it by calling a VET (duh).

The answer is 2 chords, and probably 100 vocalizations.

This thread will allow others to Deny Ignorance, and not swallow every fact
that is thrown at them.

Thanks again!!