Animal Communication – Part Two

In continuing with our look into the differences between animal and human communication, we found that a renowned researcher conducted a seven-year study on the subject.

The researcher, Dr. Salee Yasry Eden, after studying three different types of animals, said that, in their own way, they “are intelligent and civilized individuals with often refined social behavior.”

In one study with bees, he found that by flying in certain structures (the bee-dance), honeybees pass on information to other bees. In this way they inform each other about the needs of the queen. Like humans, they use their neurological brain system to communicate.

With birds, the similarity with human language is more in the structure of the use of the voice. Just like our language, the meaning of the bird’s language depends on time variation, rhythm and melodies. Other similarities are that birds learn the language from their parents. In fact, they even speak in dialects so that birds of the same species, but from different countries, don’t understand each other.

With the third group, apes, genetically closest to the human being, Dr. Eden proved that they communicate just like people, expressing differences in pace, rhythm, melody and tone. And, again like humans, they can express meaning, and sometimes entire messages, through their emotions – and they can even read and interpret signs.

The idea that animals only react automatically is contradicted by Dr. Eden and many other scientists.

To determine the similarities between animal and human language is very important, especially when we talk about cruelty to animals.

 Τhis way, we can show that animals have their own values, apart from the value which humans attach to them – such as pet, involuntary test subject, meat producer, or protector.

However, too much emphasis on the similarities can also have negative consequences for the well being of the animals.

Our language has an advanced self-consciousness, and the emphasis is on verbal communication and body language becomes much less important.

If we put the animals in an equal position we have the risk of only paying attention to the voice and not to the signals they give with the fur and smell.

Also, certain behavior can be wrongly interpreted: we may think a dog which yawns is sleepy, but yawning could also mean that the dog feels stressed. Besides that, never forget that a dog or cat can not argue logically.  So, it does not make sense to punish a cat who scratched a chair or a dog that wet the carpet an hour after the fact. The animal will not understand what you are talking about.

If people want to communicate with animals it is essential to recognize both the similarities and the differences between the languages.

Proper education is very important in this matter. If we have enough knowledge about the body language of animals, we can certainly “speak” with them and recognize their values!

Animal communication, and indeed the understanding of the animal world in general, is a rapidly growing field, and even in the 21st century so far, many prior understandings related to diverse fields such as personal symbolic name use, animal emotions, animal culture and learning, and even sexual conduct, long thought to be well understood, have been revolutionized.