Sandhill Crane
Picture Source: National Park Service

Communication is not something that is the exclusive realm of humans. Coco the ape communicated very well in sign language with her trainer but couldn't understand some of the concepts of language such as yesterday. When Coco had her IQ tested it came out to be 80. The average American is 90-120. The day came that her trainer had waited for. When she thought Coco was proficient enough at sign language her trainer asked the animal the 64,000 dollar question, "what was death?". Coco replied, in sign language, that death was being put in a warm hole. The reason this question was asked was that Coco had been observed burying a dead pigeon. Coco was so human like she even had a pet, a cat that she loved very much.

But animals do not have to be primates to communicate. Even the lowly insect may be able to communicate. Take the Honey Bee for example. It seems to be born with this ability. When the bee discovers a particularly good flower it will fly back to the hive and do a little dance that somehow lets the other bees know about the flower and its location. This is one of the great mysteries of science and scientists have been trying to crack the dance code for years.

It is thought that certain species of fish can communicate with each other. The frequency is so low that divers can not hear it. When a Black grouper is startled it makes a very loud boom noise. Damselfish are believed to make very complex sounds. The sound is usually made by the male when he is defending his territory. This fish makes a different sound when courting, that sounds like chirping. Fish have inner ears that allow them to hear.

A howling wolf is not howling to scare anyone. The reason he is doing so is to let the rest of his pack know where he is and to tell other packs to stay away, this is his territory.

Wolf
Picture Source: National Park Service

There are quite a few people that claim that they can communicate with animals by reading their thoughts. I personally don't believe in this but some people claim that their pets were helped this way.

The Kangaroo rat communicates by stamping its feet. So far researchers have been able to distinguish between stamping to warn off a snake, stamping to get a mate and stamping for territory.

Some birds are said to have certain sounds to show the difference between the fact that a hawk is in the air overhead and that hawk is on the ground.

In 1979 another ape named Matata was being taught language through the use of a keyboard and symbols. It became very frustrating for the trainers and the ape. Things did not go well, then to the utter surprise of the trainers, the adopted son to Matata, Kanzi went over to the keyboard and began typing sentences. He had been watching the entire time Matata was being taught. He even understood spoken language which really surprised everyone. 90% of all his communications were spontaneous.

Dolphins have often been the target of language study. This is for a combination of reasons. One reason is that they have a brain which is larger than a human, another is that they make many different noises and yet another is that they are a very social animal.

Have we been wrong about animals all these eons? Could it be that animals are far more intelligent than we have been giving them credit for? If this is true, our cruelty to animals is even worse then we thought. Imagine slaughtering an animal's mate for some cosmetic test while his mate watches from her cage? Could the animal be experiencing sorrow on the scale of human sorrow, maybe so? Do we have to look at animals in a different light? We certainly do.