Animal communication

Animal communication is how animals share information with each other. This sharing can change how others act. It can happen on purpose, like when animals show off to attract a mate. Or it can happen by accident, such as when a predator leaves a scent that alerts its prey. This topic is studied in fields like animal behavior, sociology, neurology, and animal cognition. Researchers are learning new things about how animals use symbols, show emotions, learn, and interact in many ways.

When the information shared causes a change in behavior, it is called a signal. For these signals to continue within a group, both the animal sending the signal and the one receiving it usually benefit. The way signals are made and how they are understood develop together over time. Often, signals use more than one way to communicate, like both sight and sound, and understanding them requires looking closely at both the sender and the receiver.

Animal languages

Animals make sounds to share their feelings and needs. Some animals have learned small parts of human languages. They can also use special skills like electrolocation and echolocation to talk about things such as prey and their location.

Modes

Animals use many different ways to talk to each other. They can send messages using their bodies, sounds, smells, and even electricity!

Visual

Animals often use body movements or parts to send messages. For example, a parent herring gull shows its bright yellow bill to its chick when it returns with food. The chick taps the red spot on the bill to ask for food. Bonobos and chimps also use gestures to communicate, just like humans.

Some animals change their colors to send signals. Octopuses and cuttlefish can change their skin color quickly to hide, find mates, or scare away predators. Birds like Blue and Yellow Macaws show emotions through facial expressions.

Auditory

Many animals make sounds to talk to each other. Frogs, humpback whales, and songbirds all make calls for different reasons, like finding mates or warning others of danger. Some insects, like crickets, rub their legs together to make sounds. Prairie dogs have a very complex system of calls to describe dangers.

Olfactory

Smells are another way animals communicate. For example, wolves mark their territory with scent during the breeding season. Fish like Atlantic salmon can detect chemicals released by injured members of their group and respond accordingly.

Electric

Some animals, mostly fish, use electric signals to talk. Weakly electric fishes create electric fields to share information about their species, sex, and identity with others.

Touch

Touch is important for many animals. It can be used in fights, during mating, or to strengthen social bonds. For example, animals often groom each other to show friendship and remove parasites.

Seismic

Some animals send messages by creating vibrations in the ground or water. Frogs and bees use this form of communication to share information.

Thermal

Certain snakes can sense heat to find prey or regulate their body temperature. These snakes have special pits on their faces that detect infrared radiation, helping them "see" warm objects in the dark.

Autocommunication

Autocommunication is a special way animals send messages to themselves. They send out a signal, like a sound or electricity, and then sense how it changes when it comes back. This helps them learn about food, dangers, or other animals nearby.

Some fish, like electric fishes, use electricity to feel their way around, while bats and toothed whales use sounds, called echolocation, to "see" with their ears and find their way in the dark.

Functions

Animals communicate for many important reasons. They use signals to show they want food or a mate. Animals also use special displays, sounds, or smells to attract a mate. For example, birds of paradise have dazzling courtship dances, and geese show special displays to their partners.

Animals use signals to claim or defend their homes. Some animals will redirect aggression by showing they are scared. Food-related signals help others find food—like the waggle dance of honeybees. Alarm calls warn others of danger, helping the group stay safe.

Main articles: Mating, pair bonds, Redirected aggression, Waggle dance, Alarm calls, Meta-communication

Interpretation of animal behaviour

Animal signals can be easy to see but hard to understand. It’s tempting to think of animals, especially pets and apes, using human feelings to explain their actions, but this can be wrong.

For example, when an ape “smiles,” it might really be showing anger. The same action can mean different things depending on what’s happening around it.

For instance, a dog’s tail wag or posture can change meaning in different situations. In a book called The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals from 1872 by Charles Darwin, he showed how dogs use their bodies to show many different feelings.

Interspecific communication

Main article: Interspecies communication

Many animals talk to animals that are not their own kind. For example, animals that might be eaten often give signals to warn animals that could hurt them. Bright colors on wasps or mimicry in hoverflies can scare away animals that might attack them. Animals like wolves and rattlesnakes also act in ways that show other animals they are protected.

Some animals that hunt others use clever tricks to catch their food. The angler fish uses a glowing lure to bring smaller fish close. Some spiders act like ants to get nearer to their food. People also talk with animals, and learning these signals helps us take good care of them. Dogs, for example, know that a pointing finger means a place, not the thing being pointed at.

Other aspects

Animals have many ways to talk to each other, and this helps them stay safe and healthy. Some animals have special body parts or behaviors just for communicating. For example, the peacock has a beautiful tail, and cranes dance to show off. Birds like the European herring gull even have a special red spot on their beaks to help them talk to each other.

Scientists study how these ways of communicating developed over time. They look at how animals might have started with simple movements or body parts and slowly made them into more special signals. For example, some birds wipe their beaks as a simple action, but in some species, this became a special way to find a mate. Communication is very important for animals, and it often helps both the animal sending the message and the one receiving it.

Main article: Signalling theory

Scientists also study how animals understand each other. Some animals, like vervet monkeys, make different alarm calls for different dangers and know what these calls mean. Even bottlenose dolphins can recognize each other using special whistles, almost like using names. This shows that some animals have more complex ways of communicating than we might think.

Main article: Animal language

Errors in communication

Sometimes, animals can make mistakes when they try to talk to each other. This can happen if they are far apart or if the message is very complicated. The animal that receives the message might not know where it is coming from, especially if the sender is trying to trick them. These tricks can make it harder for them to understand each other.