[Animals] Scientists: Studying animal chatter can help us understand ourselves

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link:https://www.aljazeera.net/news/science/2021/7/7/ثرثرة-الحيوانات-يمكن-أن-تساعدنا-على

 

For humans, communication is the bedrock of their relationships and part of their business success. Likewise, animals make sounds to warn, attract companions, express distress, and defend their territory, and vocal cords serve myriad purposes to ensure survival.

But have you ever wondered, of all the creatures that share our planet Earth, which one speaks the most? And what is the most talkative animal?

 

 

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In human terms, we might measure "chatter" in two ways; The amount of time we spend talking, and the variety of what those sounds convey. How does this apply to non-human species?

When animals forage for food, they make sounds, says Eric Kirshenbaum, a zoologist at the University of Cambridge in the UK who studies the vocal communication of animals and uses algorithms to analyze and compare their sounds. So that everyone knows that everything is fine and that there are no predators.

And according to what Kirschenbaum says to Live Science, Being social does not necessarily mean that the animal communicates a lot, because pronunciation also comes at a cost. "Most animals try not to speak much, because it actually requires a lot of energy." Another factor is predation; The sounds expose the animal to a potential danger of being hunted.

And when it comes to vocal communication, social species tend to have more diversity in the messages they convey, while solitary animals need to communicate simpler messages to the rest of the world.

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It is generally wrong, says Kirshenbaum, to view communication among animals as being made up of separate words with unique meanings like ours.
This idea was supported by songbirds, and although they have some of the most complex vocal sequences of all living things, these sequences typically occur in scenarios where the relative simplicity of the bird's purposes of communication, such as calling a mate or defending one's territory, do not match.

Eric Jarvis, a neuroscientist at The Rockefeller University in New York who studies songbirds as a model for how humans learn to speak, told Live Science that some bird species, such as mockingbirds or African gray parrots, steal sounds from other species in the wild to look smarter, so to speak."

These parrots and mockingbirds suggest that individual sounds may not convey separate messages as words do when humans speak; Because they belong to completely different types, they are unlikely to have transferable meanings.
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Whatever the animals say, some of them spend more time talking than others.

According to Jarvis, animals can be divided into two broad groups; Non-vocal (or innate) learners, and phonological learners, which are animals that learn articulation by imitating sounds.

A few groups of animals fall into the vocal learning camp, which includes humans, songbird species and some non-human mammals, including dolphins, whales, elephants, seals and bats.

Jarvis suggests that communicating frequently can aid communication across large areas, helping animals to claim territory or find a mate. Presumably, it is the animals that make the most noises that you should worry the least about predators.

Interestingly, vocal learners in particular "tend to be near the top of the food chain like humans, whales, dolphins or elephants, or they vocalize in the ultrasonic range (so they can't be heard), like bats."
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Moreover, chatter animals in particular have a system that reduces the energy costs associated with constantly making sounds.

So, who gets the crown for the best babbler? Kirshenbaum made an informed guess that among these animals, dolphins would be a tough contender for the title, based on his research.

Jarvis is now devoting part of his research to finding out what vocal learners can tell us about spoken human language. He has identified specific genetic mutations in songbirds that are associated with vocal learning that could shed some light on how speech disorders occur in humans; So studying how animals communicate is more than just a curiosity, and it can help us understand ourselves more.