Why can’t animals talk to us? Are humans the only animals that can talk? Can different species of animals communicate with each other? We learn about animal communication with Arik Kershenbaum, author of Why Animals Talk: The New Science of Animal Communication. He studies wolves, gibbons, dolphins and hyrax to learn how they communicate. Also in this episode: why are parrots able to speak human words but other birds can’t?
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- All animals communicate, but they do it in different ways. Some use sound, some use smell.
- We actually know very little about why humans started talking, but the theory is that when humans started living in large groups, they needed a way to communicate. Humans are the only animals that use language to communicate.
- Using sound for communication allows you to send a message quickly over a long distance.
- Animals communicate in different ways because they have different needs and live in different environments. For example, sound is a bad way for an animal that lives in a noisy river to communicate.
- There are many examples of animals of different species communicating with each other.
- Primates like chimpanzees that stay in the forest do not make as many noises as gibbons, who live in the grasslands.
- Dolphins give themselves names and researchers think elephants might also name themselves.
- Parrots love to copy human speech, but they are not speaking, unless they have undergone very rigorous training.
- Wolves howl to protect their territory, to let others know where they are, and sometimes just for fun!
