Do animals talk to each other the way people do? Do they
have their own languages? When thinking about the English language these are
some of the key questions that always comes to mind. As humans we are attached
to the idea that language is the one thing that makes us, as a species, unique.
Language is the last boundary standing between us and other animals. In order
to answer these questions we first need to look at what language really means.
A common definition of language is, ‘the communication of thoughts and feelings
through a system of arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols’.
So the real question is, do animals communicate their thoughts and feelings
through a system of signals?
Animals might not be able to speak the way we do or master
advanced language techniques, but they certainly have other ways of
communicating to each other. Whether through visual, auditory, tactile or
chemical means of communication animals are effectively able to express at
least their basic thoughts and feelings to each other.
Many animals use auditory communication to express
themselves to one another, some examples of this are; whale song, wolves
howling, frogs croaking and birds chirping. Another form of animal
communication is visual, this includes; fireflies glowing to attract their
mates, peacocks showing their elaborate tails during courting rituals and
cobras inflating their hoods to scare other creatures. Tactile animal
communication can be shown by; dogs licking their pups to bond, baboons using
touch to show affection and horses kicking other horses to establish dominance.
Many animals also use chemical means of communication, some examples of this
are; dogs marking their scent to establish their territory, ants using
pheromone trails to follow each other and skunks using smell to deter
predators.
Studies have shown that animals are becoming capable of even
more advanced language techniques, especially in the cases of the Gunnison’s
prairie dog, a species of dog found in the US and Mexico, and chimpanzees. Research has shown that prairie dog colonies
have a communication system that includes nouns, verbs, and adjectives.
Scientists also found that prairie dogs aren't born knowing the calls, they
have to learn them. This is based on the fact that different prairie dog
colonies all have different dialects, meaning that the calls have been created
by the individual colonies and passed on from one generation to the next.
Another discovery of advanced animal communication was a chimpanzee at a
research centre who gossiped, through means of a special keyboard, about a
fight between two other chimpanzees. This shows that animals are advancing from
just communicating their basic needs and wants to gossiping amongst each other.
All of these examples show that even though animals are not
able to communicate the way we do, they do have their own languages of their
own where they communicate their thoughts and feelings through a system of
signals.
Sources:
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