Chomsky has dismissed efforts to teach apes like Koko how to sign as revealing nothing about the antecedents of human language. But now we know better. According to David Shariatmadari there are several reasons: A team of researchers in Florida recently set out to record the “acoustic behaviour” of bottlenose dolphins while they completed a difficult […]
Phytosemiotics is the study of the language of non-animal beings. In an excellent article from 2000 professor Kalevi Kull from University of Tartu (Estonia) explains the biosemiotic background of recent developments in the field. Abstract: “Asking, whether plants have semiosis, the article gives a review of the works on phytosemiotics, referring to the tradition in […]
According to swedish Artist Christine Ödlund, when a plant reacts to a butterfly larvae feeding on its leaves, it releases chemical substances, or compounds. In collaboration with the Ecological Chemistry Research Group at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, the characteristics of these compounds are here analyzed, transposed into amplitude and intensity of sinus tones and recorded […]
Fish communicate with sound, movement and electric waves. Their semantic sensory perception is extraordinary and complex. It takes some good amount of imagination to understand it. The lateral line is the main sensory organ of fish. This organ not only captures sounds, it can also sense tremors and currents. This line system, which detects gentle […]
Sahamalaza sportive lemurs, an endangered species of Madagascan lemur, use the alarm calls of birds and other lemurs to pick up on the presence of predators, according to researchers, who report the find as a first of its kind to confirm that lemurs can recognize the calls of a non-primate species. There is a dearth […]
Communication among prairie dogs and other highly social animals is much more sophisticated than we think. Professor Con Slobodchikoff of Northern Arizona University has spent the past 30 years studying a foreign tongue. But there are no instructional podcasts or evening classes to help him: Slobodchikoff is trying to learn prairie dog. Prairie dogs, a […]
Interspecies Communication Inc. administers a research program that gives creative people the opportunity to interact directly with wild animals and habitat through music, art, and ceremony. ICI is a US 501(c)(3) non-profit, founded in 1978 to promote a better understanding of what is, and what can be communicated between human beings and other animals. Their methods focus […]