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- attract mates

ANIMAL COMMUNICATION
1.

What do we mean by COMMUNICATION ? :


Design Features of Human Language

2. Definition of Animal Communication

Animal communication is "the transmission of a signal from


one animal to another such that the sender benefits, on
average, from the response of the recipient
(def. by John M. Pearce .1987.Animal learning and Cognition : An Introduction to Animal Cognition; p.253)

3. Natural Animal Communication:

chemical signals (OLFACTORY)


- smell ( pheromone release )

touch (TACTILE)
movement, posture (e.g. dogs, geese) (VISUAL)
facial gestures (e.g. dogs snarling) (VISUAL)
visual signals (e.g. feathers, chromatophores) (VISUAL)

SOUNDS (e.g. many vertebrate and invertebrate calls)


(AUDITORY)
4. Problems with under- and over-interpretation of animals
behaviour :
the case of the horse Clever Hans (1800s, Germany)
5. Why do animals communicate? For what reasons?

A) INTRASPECIES COMMUNICATION:
I. MATING

1.

- repel competitors

CEPHALOPODS (Cuttlefish, Squid and Octopus)


HOW: chromatophores

2. CRICKETS
HOW: by scratching together the bases of their forewings
3. WEB-SPINNING SPIDERS
HOW: by sending vibrations (a males love poem);
- by scented web (Sierra Dome Spider)
4. FISH
HOW: Displaying and sensing ELECTRICITY
OR from grinding teeth (toadfish)
5. FROGS
TO ATTRACT FEMALES or TO DOUBLE CHECK ON THE
MALE (e.g. female Carpenter Frogs)
HOW: croaks produced as a result of air circulating between
sacs and lungs
frog dialects
6. BIRDS
HOW: singing LEARNED song variants
- Song Sparrow
- bird dialects
Bowerbird builds a bower that serves him as a stage (dancing +
singing on it)
7. RED DEER
HOW: partaking in a ROARING COMPETITION
8. EMPEROR PENGUINS
HOW: singing a penguin-specific song
9. (Baleen) WHALES
TO MATE or to keep in touch OVER LONG DISTANCES
HOW: through infrasonic calls (Humpback whale, Killer whale)
10.ELEPHANTS
TO MATE (mating rumbles) or TO KEEP IN TOUCH
HOW: infrasonic communication

greeting / contact/ lets go calls

2. CATS
to proclaim its TERRITORY (to repel intruders)

HOW: through roars

II. PREDATOR AVOIDANCE

B) INTERSPECIES COMMUNICATION:

CHICKENS (barnyard bantam)


HOW: ALARM CALLS
a ground-predator signal (a high-pitched Kuk Kuk Kuk)
a flying-predator scream (a single long call)

1. CEPHALOPODS
predator avoidance / capturing prey through CAMOUFLAGE or
DISRUPTIVE COLORATION
2. PIRATE SPIDERS
to deceive their prey

III. FOOD
1. HONEYBEE
to communicate about the environment or the availability of food
HOW: HONEYBEE DANCE
studies of Austrian biologist Karl von Frisch
Michelsens ROBOBEE experiments
2. DOMESTIC CHICKENS
The FOOD CALLS
HOW: a low series of single-note clucks
for an excellent food source they cluck more often and
more rapidly. Other hens quickly respond to such food
calls
for an average food source more indifferent calls

to guard ones social group and assist in rearing offspring

3. CATERPILLARS AND ANTS


COOPERATION for mutual gains: FOOD & PROTECTION
4. DOGS
-a playful bow (This is still a play)
Animals understanding or speaking human language:
HORSE CLEVER HANS
PARROT called ALEX (Irene Pepperberg)
DOG called RICO
Cetaceans: DOLPHINS (clicks and whistles )
Questions to be answered:

IV. TERRITORIALITY
1. HIPPOS
to announce its TERRITORY
the only land species that CALLS AND HEARS IN STEREO
- one channel being air and the other - underwater
HOW: through infrasounds

Can ANIMALS use language? the answer depends on what


definition of language we apply

Can animals exchange meaningful messages?


Is the capacity for natural language really exclusively human?

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