© 2026
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
The Best of Our Knowledge

Cats and Parrots

By Lucas Willard
Published March 30, 2026 at 3:00 PM EDT
Ways To Subscribe
George Olah
/
Springer Nature
Ancient feathers found in the Ychsma tomb in Pachacamac. 

The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education, and research.

Cats make a lot of noises. And while an individual cat’s meows, growls and hisses might be unique, researchers say their purrs might be the most reliable way to tell them apart.

And colorful feathers discovered in a coastal Peruvian cave clued researchers into an ancient parrot trade.

Tags
The Best of Our Knowledge scienceparrotfeathershistorytradecats
Lucas Willard
Lucas Willard is a news reporter and host at WAMC Northeast Public Radio, which he joined in 2011. He produces and hosts The Best of Our Knowledge and WAMC Listening Party.
See stories by Lucas Willard
Related Content
  • The Best of Our Knowledge
    Henry David Thoreau’s life and legacy
    Lucas Willard
    Henry David Thoreau is a lot of things: a father of nature writing in 19th century America; a radical thinker who challenged societal norms; the subject of homework assignments for bored 21st century high school students.The transcendentalist’s legacy is the subject of a new three-part documentary. We’ll speak with the filmmakers behind the project.
  • People connect to the horses in Montana's Centennial Valley just outside of Yellowstone National Park in July, 2020. Here, people seem to measure worth by how comfortable you are around animals and they are around you. I have seen young toddlers on horseback nestled between mother and mane. By the age of two, they are nuzzling calves. Children learn to throw a rope before they can talk. It is a place where people are shaped by the land itself and they in turn help shape the land. (Photo by Ami Vitale)
    The Best of Our Knowledge
    Ami Vitale, National Geographic Explorer at Large
    Lucas Willard
    Ami Vitale is a National Geographic photographer who was recently designated Explorer at Large.The title is an honor reserved for only the most impactful of storytellers, scientists, and changemakers.We’ll speak with Ami about her new title and her work documenting efforts to reverse extinction around the world.
  • The Best of Our Knowledge
    Feathered friends and elephant whiskers
    Lucas Willard
    The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education, and research.Birds of a different feather sometimes stick together. We’ll learn about two raptors of separate species that displayed an unusual friendship.And elephants depend on their trunks to navigate the world. Their whiskers make it all possible.
  • The Best of Our Knowledge
    Roman mosaic tells a forgotten story of the Trojan War
    Madeleine Reynolds
    The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education, and research.You may already be familiar with Homer’s Iliad.And more than 2,000 years later, the ancient Greek epic is taught in classrooms across the country, But recently discovered Roman mosaic offers another telling of the Trojan War.