Can animals
communicate? If so how?
Animals can communicate it’s just a lot trickier to understand due to animals
communicate in so many ways but the main ways animals communicate can be
separated into 4 main groups.
Auditory: Auditory is simply making sounds at the species to
warn animals like a peacock calling to warn animals about an approaching tiger
, it is also used as a socialising tool like when a troop of baboons they all
sit together and chatter as well as grooming. The main animal that use auditory
are wolves they howl to call a pack together they moan and growl to show others
who is the boss or when they want personal space another animal that do this
is, are dolphins like killer whales they moan click and whistle that
orchestrate plans to kill its prey as well as taunt its prey to humour
themselves and others in the pod so already we have proven animals have some
sort of language but their other means of communication.
Visual: Visual communication is mainly used to warn
predators or attract a attention an example would be a cobra trying to warn
it’s attacker by lifting its front portion of its body and raising its hood to
warn animals that it is in no mood to be messed around with and it will then
also do this to fend off rival males but other species like the birds of
paradise use visual communication and sounds to attract attention that attract
mates with beautiful dances and wonderful songs which as we know humans do as
well for the same reason or just to have fun.
Tactical: This is communication through touch which this
where animals and primates differ from other
most animals mainly hit each other to communicate this is because animals
don’t like touching each other unless they have to, primates groom each other
and like to play and wrestle and simply just huddle together and humans also do
these thing to show affection like hugging it is completely unnecessary and all it really does is help spread disease
but through a social sense it shows affection and that you care for the other
person.
Chemical: Chemical communication is used to by rabbits dogs
but more prominently in any other animal is the brown hyena which leaves a
small trace of excrement which is usually left on a shrub which used like notice
board for other members of the pack to say for example “I was here 15minutes
ago an hour ago there’s no food here “but others might be like this 30 mile
patch is ours keep out but this is also like a human with body odour it was
used by Australopithecus which originally attracted females but now in our
clean hygienic world it is a sign of poor hygiene or lack of wealth but some
are less pungent like when a human desperately wants a girlfriend /boyfriend
they give certain pheromones that make girls/guys smell and seek an alternate
mate hence the term you reek of desperation.
Conclusion.
In conclusion to
this question can animals communicate the simple answer is yes through most
animals use 3 of these ways to communicate with one another other species like
humans and monkeys use all these ways to communicate due to our brain being
adapted to pack life which means that we have to send a lot messages a once so
any which way there is to communicate primates will do it to allow others to
know what have to say.
How does animal
language differ from human language?
Animal
language is extremely complex compared to ours if you look at a humans speech
patterns to let’s say a whales the difference is huge if you look at a whales
brain or dolphin (cause dolphins are whales) that a large portion of their
brain is actually to process the complex sounds made by other dolphins due to
human which use a small portion to speaking a whale may use nearly 40% of their
brain to decode sounds quickly due to the speed of sound being 4.5 times faster
in water.
Animal
language is different to humans also due to it being chemical as well as vocal
so a dog although it growls and moans but it mainly smells another dog because it determines more about the other
dog like it can tell age gender and whether its sexually active which like most
lower evolved mammals it breeds certain times as the year unlike dolphins,
whales and primates which is where
chemical language can be more effective as a certain scent can last for weeks
and is more likely to attract a mate as well as mark territories due to an
animal such as wolf can’t write or put up visual signs it will use chemical
language and simply post this territory belongs to Wally keep out .So this just
one of the ways human language differs from animal language.
Another
way animal language used by animals is visual a lot of animals that are
coloured and vibrant are male and have no parasites or diseases whilst a female
maybe more dull but it will be more vibrant due to a lack of parasites whilst
an animal not very coloured but not vibrant is either sick or a juvenile,
another way animals use visualisation more than us is to ward off potential
mating threats such as a milk snake disguise its self as another snake that’s
almost identical is that its sending out the same warning as its venomous
counterpart it’s making its self-more threating than it is but a animal like the Gila monster means
business and will deliver a poisonous bite.
Early
humans like Australopithecus used sound to be more threating than it is to ward
off potential predators to gain more fruit and carrion this was often passed on
by the females as the females were pushed out of the troop to prevent
inbreeding.
So
in conclusion animals aren’t going to be understood by humans as they emit
chemicals from the body which are undetectable to the human nose and we may
never understand animals at all due to this gap in the senses.
Bibliography.
Published:
2002 by the BBC.
NO
publisher or date given.
Published
in 2006
Published
by BBC
Published
by national geographic
Updated
February 13th 2012
Published
by: Discovery channel.
Updated:
2011
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