Articles and Stories

July 19, 2013

It seems that we may not be to far off from being able to “talk to the animals”.  Professor Con Slobodchikoff from North Arizona University has been studying prairie dogs for the past 30 years and has discovered how they communicate with each other. He learned that they make distinctive calls that can distinguish between a variety of animals including coyotes, domestic dogs and humans. They even make distinctive warning calls to each other when different individuals of the same species were sighted, leading the professor to wonder if they were describing actual physical attributes.

He and his team conducted a study in which they would parade dogs of different sizes and colors as well as humans dressed in different colors in front of the prairie dogs. Once they recorded and analyzed the calls of the prairie dogs, they soon discovered that they indeed were able to describe not only the size and shape of individuals, but even whether one of the individuals had previously been sighted with a gun.

Looking ahead, through computer translation, we may be able to ask our dog what they would like for dinner or why they made a mess on the kitchen floor and get an answer. I’m not sure I really want to know, but the idea that animals have this capacity to communicate may be important toward modifying behavioral issues in animals that lead too many times to abuse and euthanasia.

If we can talk to the animals, there is no telling what we may learn – about them as well as about ourselves.

The entire interview is available on this website:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2013/06/21/science-prairie-dog-language-decoded.html