How Talking Animals Communicate
Animals live in an amazing world of their own, interacting and coexisting with each other in their own unique ways. Just like humans, they achieve the ultimate aim of communication which is understanding, through their ability of cognition and perception. This is the ability of animals to acquire knowledge through reasoning and intuition. Most animals transmit information by signals which include the communication of facial expressions, gestures and most importantly, sounds. This focuses on how talking animals communicate.
In the animal world, sounds are communicated through vibrational waves which are produced by one animal and received by another through inter-personal communication. An animal encodes a message which is passed on to another animal who decodes the message and gives a feedback. Unlike humans who have a monopoly of communication, animals do not have a defined mode of communication. Different animals have different inborn ability to communicate according to their specie.
Talking animals are a unique species of animals who have the ability to communicate through the use of meaningful sounds. They are non human animals who have the ability to communicate through the productions of sounds which can be referred to as speaking. Many species of animals have developed languages of communication between its members. Talking animals are features of mythologies, folk tales and children’s literature. A combination of human behaviours and the characteristics of animals makes a fictional story more appealing to children. Examples of talking animals include frogs, parrots, crickets, cats, elephants, dogs, laughing jackal, orangutan, wild ducks, geese, etc.
Frogs have a unique way of communicating with their counterparts using complex calls. Just like humans, the communication is oral by the passage of air through their lungs. Talking by frogs is most prominent during the mating season; a male species makes calls to attract a female species who has the ability to identify the sexuality of the caller as a result of the distinctive tone of the call.
The parrot is another kind of talking animal, it comes in different colours. The parrot is popular because of their ability to imitate the human voice and other extrinsic sounds. Parrots also have the ability to sing songs. They are domestic talking animals who have the ability to use words to identify and describe objects, humans and other birds. Amazon parrots are the best imitators. With proper training, they can communicate with humans.
Crickets are an interesting specie of talking animals who have the ability to sing by making repeated sounds at a particular time. Besides this, they also make oral calls to their counterparts during mating. A male specie makes calls to attract a female specie who has the distinctive ability to identify the tone of the specie making the call. Both species have special ears called tympana, which enables them to detect one another’s calls.
Cats have an elaborate system of producing different sounds used for communication to depict fear, aggression and happiness. Cats have two set of languages which includes communication between mother and offspring and communication between other adults within their territory. Cats express their different emotions and needs through the intensity, pitch and volume of their meowing.
Another member of the talking animals’ family is the elephant. They communicate with low frequency vocals which are referred to as rumbles. Elephants have the unique ability to communicate with each other from great distance using infrasound from a range of 20 to 20,000 hertz. Familiar elephants greet each other with quiet rumbling.
Dog is said to be man’s best friend, this is as a result of its unique communication ability. Dogs pass messages across to each other through signals and sounds. Dogs communicate different kinds of sounds which includes alert to announce a possible threat to its owner or other dogs and approaching sounds to locate himself and other dogs.
Talking animals play vital roles to the existence of man. Their pleasurable sounds make good listening, like the songs of the birds. They also add beauty to historical events like myths and folk tales.
