VARIOUS MODES OF

ANIMAL
COMMUNICATION
Dr. Jeni Padua, PhD.
Visiting Researcher, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Lugo,Spain
Erasmus Mundus Euphrates Fellow, European Commission
Indian Science Academies’ SR Fellow-CCMB, Hyderabad
Dean of Sciences, Holy Cross College, Nagercoil, India.
ANIMAL COMMUNICATION
•Animal communication is the “passing on” of
information between two animals.
•The animal which sends the information is called
the Signaller and the animal that receives the
signal is called the Receiver.
•Animal communication is also known as
Biological communication.
TYPES OF COMMUNICATION
Intraspecific communication
• Communication within a single species. Eg.
Honeybee dance
Interspecific communication
• Prey to predator. Eg. warning colouration in wasps
• Predator to prey
Some predators communicate to the prey to make it
easier to catch them, in effect deceiving them.
Eg. Angler fish, Human/animal communication during
domestication of animals
BASIC COMPONENTS
• Signaller : An individual emitting the signal.
• Reciever : An individual receiving the signal
• Signal : The behavioural response of the signaller
• Channels : A pathway through which a signal travels. (ie means of
communication)
• Visual
• Auditory
• Chemical
• Tactile
• Electrical
VISUAL COMMUNICATION
• Informationtransmitted by visual
means is called visual
communication.
• The visual signals may be given by
various means like movement,
posture or shape of the body, Facial
expressions, colour identification,
light etc.
• Ex: Tail feather displays of male
peacocks,Visual communication in
Bees
AUDITORY
COMMUNICATION
• Sending information from one
member to another by sound
production is called auditory
signal or bioacoustic signal.
• Ex. Calls of mammals and
birds – vocal origin;
• soundproduced by crickets in
rhythmic oscillation of
forewings.
CHEMICAL
COMMUNICATION
• Molecules used for chemical
communication between
individual animals are called
pheromones.
• Pheromones are involved in
mate identification, marking
territory, alarm spreading etc.
• Pheromones include Alarm
pheromones, Sex pheromones
and Trail pheromones
TACTILE COMMUNICATION Two worker ants in tactile communication
• Information transmitted in the form
of physical contact (touch signal) is
called tactile communication.
• Antennae of ants, termites and
honeybees are involved in this
process
• Eg.Female primates often hold and
frequently cuddle their young ones
to establish a bond
ELECTRICAL SIGNALS
• It
is a means of communication in
some fishes.
• Torpedo (Electric ray), and sharks
(Scyliorhinus caniculus) have
electro receptors that are used in
communication.
Ex. Electric fish communicate
information about species identity
and sex, by discharging an electric
field/current.
SURFACE VIBRATIONS
•Insome animals information
may be communicated by
patterns of surface vibrations.
•Eg. Water spider sends out
ripples of certain frequency.
Receptive females respond to
this by moving towards the
source.
THANK YOU
Dr. Jeni Padua, PhD.
Visiting Researcher, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Lugo,Spain
Erasmus Mundus Euphrates Fellow, European Commission
Indian Science Academies’ SR Fellow-CCMB, Hyderabad
Dean of Sciences, Holy Cross College, Nagercoil, India.