Lingformant » Animals and language

Rethinking the bee’s waggle dance

Vili Maunula — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:08:56 +0000

Bees that have found food tell their friends about it by dancing. Or so we thought – but it turns out their hive-mates aren’t paying attention

Full article: New Scientist

Songbird study provides concrete measure of biology’s impact on culture

Vili Maunula — Sun, 03 May 2009 19:36:08 +0000

A study by scientists from CSHL and CCNY performed among a species of songbirds called zebra finches provides new insights into how genetic background, learning abilities and environmental variation might influence how birds evolve “song culture” — and provides some pointers to how human languages may evolve.

Full article: EurekAlert

Orphan chimpanzees cleverer than humans

Vili Maunula — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 08:56:07 +0000

Orphaned chimpanzee infants given special ‘mothering’ by humans are more advanced than the average child at nine months of age.

Full article: University of Portsmouth

Baby Birds Babble

Vili Maunula — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 07:45:19 +0000

ust like human infants, baby birds also babble before mastering complex verbal communication, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and published in the journal Science. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Herz Foundation and Friends of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research.

Full article: Natural News

Graduate student working at Great Ape Trust publishes paper in scientific journal

Vili Maunula — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:29:20 +0000

What happens when linguistic tools used to analyze human language are applied to a conversation between a language-competent bonobo and a human? The findings, published this month in the Journal of Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, indicate that bonobos may exhibit larger linguistic competency in ordinary conversation than in controlled experimental settings. …

Full article: Great Ape Trust of Iowa

Elephants master basic mathematics

Vili Maunula — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:56:35 +0000

Add elephants to the growing menagerie of animals that can count. An Asian elephant named Ashya beat this reporter at a devilishly simple addition problem. When a trainer dropped three apples into one bucket and one apple into a second, then four more apples in the first and five more in the second, the pachyderm recognised that three plus four is greater than one plus five, and snacked on the seven apples. (In my defence, I watched the video in a noisy and crowded auditorium.) …

Full article: New Scientist

Mirror self-recognition in magpies

Vili Maunula — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:54:29 +0000

Self-recognition, it has been argued, is a hallmark of advanced cognitive abilities in animals. It was previously thought that only the usual suspects of higher cognition—some great apes, dolphins, and elephants—were able to recognize their own bodies in a mirror. In this week’s issue of PLoS Biology, psychologist Helmut Prior and colleagues show evidence of self-recognition in magpies—a species with a brain structure very different from mammals.

Full article: EurekAlert

Sorry, Charlie, you and Nemo aren’t the only fish that talk

Vili Maunula — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 06:27:03 +0000

Talking fish are no strangers to Americans. From the comedic portrayal of “Mr. Limpet” by Don Knotts, to the children’s Disney favorite, “Nemo,” fish can talk, laugh and tell jokes–at least on television and the silver screen. But can real fish verbally communicate? Researchers say, “Yes,” in a paper published in the July 18 issue of the journal Science. Further, the findings put human speech–and social communications of all vertebrates–in evolutionary context. …

Full article: EurekAlert

Can animals comprehend the power of symbols?

Vili Maunula — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 06:59:38 +0000

Humans interpret symbols every day, from traffic lights to warning labels on tins. We also use symbols on a more complex level such as currency. When we use money, be it a paper note or a coin, we inherently understand the corresponding intrinsic value that that note or coin has. Our whole economic system runs on the basis that we all understand the value currency has. The question is, do animals also have this understanding? The project SEDSU, funded by the EU with around EUR 37 500 in financing, is saying yes, animals may very well understand the power of symbols and of currency. …

Full article: European Commission Research

Counting monkeys tick off yet another ‘human’ ability

Vili Maunula — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 06:56:59 +0000

At this rate a monkey might prove the Riemann hypothesis. Rhesus macaques have been shown to possess yet another numerical talent once thought unique to humans – they can simultaneously count audible beeps and dots on a computer screen. …

Full article: New Scientist

Birds communicate reproductive success in song

Vili Maunula — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 06:33:38 +0000

Some migratory songbirds figure out the best place to live by eavesdropping on the singing of others that successfully have had baby birds – a communication and behavioral trait so strong that researchers playing recorded songs induced them to nest in places they otherwise would have avoided. This suggests that songbirds have more complex communication abilities than had previously been understood, researchers say, and that these “social cues” can be as or more important than the physical environment of a site.

Full article: EurekAlert

Great apes think ahead

Vili Maunula — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 06:31:28 +0000

Apes can plan for their future needs just as we humans can – by using self-control and imagining future events. Mathias and Helena Osvath’s research, from Lunds University Cognitive Science in Sweden, is the first to provide conclusive evidence of advanced planning capacities in non-human species. Their findings are published online this week in Springer’s journal, Animal Cognition.

Full article: EurekAlert

Honeybee dance breaks down cultural barrier

Vili Maunula — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 07:05:08 +0000

Asian and European honeybees can learn to understand one another’s dance languages despite having evolved different forms of communication, an international research team has shown for the first time. The findings are published this week in the journal PLoS ONE. …

Full story: EurekAlert!

Like babies learning to talk, birds babble before they sing

Vili Maunula — Fri, 02 May 2008 07:36:59 +0000

The happy babbling that entertains parents as their babies try to mimic speech turns out to have a parallel in the animal world. Baby birds babble away before mastering their adult song, researchers report in Friday’s edition of the journal Science. …

Read the full article at AOL News

Song-Learning Birds Shed Light on Our Ability to Speak

Vili Maunula — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 05:29:11 +0000

A new study may have been for (and about) the birds, but it also hints at how humans may have developed the ability to speak, potentially paving the way to one day to identifying the causes of speech deficiencies. …

Read the full news article at Scientific American