Animal

Languages
AVELYN A. MENTAL
 Humans use words while
talking to express their needs
and wants and they cry,
slouch and make faces when
they want to express feelings.
 On the other hand, animals, or
in other words non-humans also
show signs of communication
such as a dog wagging its tail
when excited or a bird singing a
song to attract the opposite sex.
 Researchers say that animals, non-humans,
do not have a true language like humans.
However they do communicate with each
other through sounds and gestures. Animals
have a number of in-born qualities they use to
signal their feelings, but these are not like the
formed words we see in the human language.

Human children show these same forms of communication

as babies when crying and gesturing.
 Animals generally use four
methods to communicate:
1. Visual
2. Auditory or sound- based
3. Tactile or touch- based
4. Chemical or pheromones
Some species rely more on one form of
communication over another;however, they all
have various methods to show affection, ward
off threats or attract a mate.
 Language of Chimpanzees
Researchers say wild chimps
communicate 19 specific messages
to one another with a "lexicon" of
66 gestures.
Dr. Catherine Hobaiter, who led the
research, said that this was the only form of
intentional communication to be recorded in
the animal kingdom.
 Language of Chimpanzees

Only humans and chimps, she said,

had a system of communication
where they deliberately sent a
message to another individual.
Language of Chimpanzees
Observed
features:

Shout or
signal?
Subtle
signals
 Language of Birds
Do birds have language?
Yes, birds absolutely have language.
They use both body language and specific
vocalizations to communicate with other
birds, attract mates, stay in contact with
family, announce/defend territory, and gain
advanced warning of nearby predators &
danger.
 In order to understand the
language of birds, we need to look
beyond the words to the underlying
sub-communication:
 Eye contact
 Personal space
 Tone of voice
 Volume
 Overall energy & emotion
 Body language
 Language of Birds: It’s a
universal language.

Birds can understand other birds. It’s

extremely common for them to eavesdrop on
other species during alarm situations.
Since bird language is 100% non-verbal, it
means there’s no cultural differences or
regional variations to memorize.
Language of Birds: It’s a
universal language.
 Language of Dolphins
As one of the world's smartest animals,
dolphins have a complex communication
system that they use for survival, fun, and
social interaction of all kinds.

Like humans, dolphins use both verbal utterances and

nonverbal gestures to communicate with one another.
These include whistles, clicks, and loud broadband
packets of sound called burst pulses.
 Language of Dolphins
Can dolphins communicate with humans?

Any dolphin trainer will tell you that dolphins and

humans can indeed communicate in a limited in
fashion. This "limited fashion" involves learning
certain trained tasks and expressing the desire for
things such as food.
 Language of Dogs
Dogs can be trained to follow certain
commands such as ‘sit’, ‘come’ and ‘roll over’,
but does this mean they understand language
and therefore can use it as well? Dogs are
known to be experts at reading their owners
intentions and that they do not respond to actual
words but the tone in which it is said.
 Language of Bees
Bees need to communicate with each other regarding the
location of food, possible new hive sites and their quality,
potential danger, and others.They have this “dance
language”. This form of communication is important for
them in searching for food.
Bees have three primary methods used in their
communication.
1. Touch
2. Pheromones
3. Waggle dance
 Language of Bees
Touch
Bees touch their antennae to identify each other or their feet to
measure the size of comb cells
Pheromones (chemicals)
Each hive produces its own unique scent, which allows bees
identify their family members. The queen bee produces her own
pheromone, which inhibits the other females from laying eggs and
draws her brood to her. Bees also produce certain pheromones if
they sense danger.
Waggle dance
Bees use “dance steps” to descrio other bees the hive location
and the quality of these sites. They use this hive “votes” based on
the number of bees joining in the dance and the intensity of the
dance itself.
 Language of Ants
Ants communicate nonverbally. They use the following:
1. Pheromones
They use their antenna to “smell” the pheromones from
the colony of ants where food is located.
2. Touch
They touch each other’s antenna or use their front
legs along with their antenna to communicate.
3. Motion and body language
Ants raise their abdomen in the air to communicate.
 Language of Ants
4. Sound
Some species of ants make noises to communicate
giving a variety of meaning like calling for help or to
attract a potential mate.
5. Trophallaxis or sharing of food mouth- to- mouth
They use this to share food and even to spread
important information and help them separate nest mates
from outsiders.
 Published studies or researches
According to Toshitaka N. Suzuki in his paper titled
Animal linguistics: Exploring referentiality and
compositionality in bird calls, he focused on the findings
of the recent researches on the two core capabilities of
language, referentiality and compositionality, which have
indepedently evolved in the avian lineage.
 Referentiality and Compositionality

Referentiality is the ability to convey to receivers,

reference to external objects or events using
specific signals.
Compositionality is the ability to combine parts
and structure in order to give meaning
 Using comparative studies, it was concluded that there
were changes with how birds communicate. Many
factors would have contributed to these changes in bird
communication system which may include
socioecological factors (flock and habitat)and other
genetic and neural mechanisms.
 Activity on Animal Languages
Choose any two of the animal languages
discussed. Compare and contrast the concepts of
each language with the human language. You may
provide situational examples for each.
 References:
https://voxy.com/blog/2012/04/do-animals-have-a-language/

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-28023630

https://nature-mentor.com/birds-language/

https://www.vallarta-adventures.com/en/blog/how-do-dolphins-
communicate

animals.mom.com
 References/ links (published journals and
researches)

https://esj-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.111
1/1440-1703.12200

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/
rstb.2019.0046