• Question: can animals speak to each other

    Asked by alan1421 to Anil, Blanka, Cees, Emma, Mike on 26 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Emma Trantham

      Emma Trantham answered on 26 Jun 2012:

      Hi

      Animals can definitely communicate with others in their species. They don’t necessarily do it by what we think of as ‘speaking’ though. Some of this communication is done through noises (whales communicate with each other using noises that travel huge distances in the ocean) but much of this communication is done by other ways including:

      -smells (that’s why dogs sometimes wee only a little bit – they are marking their terroritory with their scent and so basically telling other dogs to keep away)
      -the way they sit/stand (when a cat is trying to scare another cat away it will puff itself up and make all its fur stand on end so it looks bigger)

      I’m not sure how many animals can communicate with other animals that aren’t in their species. but I know some can – think of a pet dog when it is begging for food. Using the way it looks and sometimes by whining the dog can communicate to us (another animal) that it is hungry.

    • Photo: Michael Cook

      Michael Cook answered on 26 Jun 2012:

      Some few animals have learned to communicate with humans! A very small number of monkeys have been trained by various people to communicate, either through sign language or by pointing to images.

      I can’t remember the whole story, but I do know where you can find out: there’s a really wonderful science podcast called RadioLab and one episode in particular focused on some of these animals. Check it out here: http://www.radiolab.org/2010/feb/19/lucy/.

    • Photo: Blanka Sengerova

      Blanka Sengerova answered on 26 Jun 2012:

      There is a distinct difference between speaking and communication. Animals might not necessarily speak to each other (though barking could be seen as speaking and the bleating of lambs I heard on the Lake District fells definitely seemed like baby lamb calling for Mum) but they do communicate. As the others have said, this might be through leaving smells behind (such as the dogs marking their area with pee), through something called pheromones which insects but also larger animals release to show, fir instance, that they are ready for mating. It can also be through body language – I am sure you can tell the difference between a dog that looks threatening and another one that just wants to play. Touch is also another way of communicating.

      To some extent, the early communication that human babies do before they learn to speak (crying, hand gestures, etc.) is not that dissimilar to the communication by animals.

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