Our cats, those cute little creatures that once they get home they can't stop meowing, despite us feeding them, petting them, and giving them water. It makes us think of how awesome it would be to speak the language of animals.
Scientists have wondered that too, and that’s why today, researchers are working hard to try to understand the animal language. Studies are shedding some light on this topic, and now they know some expressions and signals that animals use to communicate between themselves and with humans. Sadly, and unlike what many people may think, animals cannot speak the human language. Yes, animals understand signals and patterns that they have learned during their lives and reproduce them in order to survive, but there is a big difference between these communication skills and verbal skills.
“But wait… what about parrots, and ravens? They can speak!”
Parrots and ravens are famous for being able to “copy” the words and phrases that we pronounce, but the truth is that they are trying to mimic our language for survival. Since they are very smart birds, they understand that humans are a social group that communicate and share information. Therefore, they interact with humans and perceive the positive answer, and thus they continue repeating those patterns in order to get all of their needs met. Birds don’t use their tongues to mimic the human language; instead, they use the syringeal muscles as a mechanism to produce human sounds.
Michael Schindler, biologist and teacher at Lesley University in an article for the Scientific American Magazine:
“Some benefits of learning may include development of context-specific calls. Imitative vocal learning is also a reliable social display of neural functions—requiring good hearing, memory and muscle control for sound production—that may be under consideration by a potential mate or ally.”
Animals that can communicate with us
Koko the gorilla learned around 2000 words of spoken English using the American Sign Language and could communicate her feelings and needs to their keepers.
Orcas are also able to mimic the human speech, despite they don’t know what the words mean, they will imitate it as long as they get rewarded. The website theconversation.com, shows us how orcas can say “hello” and count numbers repeating after humans, Orcas saying hello and counting numbers.
Also, Alex, an African grey parrot, was able to say up to 150 words in English, but not only that, he could as well describe sizes and count objects. We don’t know if it’s casualty or not, but surprisingly the bird uttered the following words to his owner the night of his death:
"You be good. See you tomorrow. I love you."
Constantine Slobodchikoff Project
You can learn more about this project by visiting Constantine’s official webpage.
Conclusions
Despite the fact that animals can communicate through signs and sounds, including those they learn from humans, there is still no proof that animals can really talk and have a conversation. Of course, when we have pets, when we take care of them, the more time we spend with them, the more we understand what they are trying to tell us, and the more they understand us in return. It doesn't matter if we talk through sounds, signs, or feelings; as long as we love animals, we will know what they mean. They say "love" is the universal language. But really, it's up to you to decide if this is true or not.
Sources and more information:
- Pets translator.
- Orcas mimicking humans.
- Koko the gorilla.
- Animal communication.
- BBC article: will we ever talk to animals?
- A comparative study of human and parrot phonation.
- Syringeal muscles and phonology of birds.
- Why parrots talk?
- Constantine Slobodchikoff.
- Neural systems for vocal learning in birds and humans.
- Scientific American blog about Michael Schindlinger.
Images sources: 1, 2, 3, 4.
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