by Emma Walker

Created on: February 02, 2009

Chimpanzees greet each other by touching hands. Elephants show affection by entwining trunks. Gorillas stick out their tongues to show anger. Horses rub noses as a sign of affection. Kangaroo rats stamp their feet to warn predators. Whales and dolphins use sound to communicate, and the list goes on

Zoosemiotics is the study of animal, including human, communication.

Many animals are not only able to communicate within their own species, but to others too. Dogs communicate various things to humans by a number of different ways. Your pet dog may raise one paw begging for tit bits and bark at intruders.

Police dogs communicate with their handlers, they are able to follow instructions including searching for; missing people, drugs, weapons and explosives, they are trained by directing their natural instincts in ways that they find rewarding, using good communication skills and positive reinforcement.

Unsurprisingly one animal which communicates in a very similar way to humans is chimpanzees, so much so that an area of the brain involved in planning and producing speech, and sign language in humans plays a similar role in chimpanzee communication. Another similarity between chimpanzee and humans is the use of body language. Chimpanzees have evolved many facial and body muscles to help them convey messages, for example erect hair shows agitation or aggression; grinning portrays fear; prolonged staring is threatening behaviour; and hanging the lower lip indicates a calm, relaxed mood.

The more social an animal is the more communicative it tends to be. Elephants have very complex social systems; female elephants tend to exist in herds of any where from 5 to 30 related elephants. The primary reason for this seems to be for protection and nurturing of the young.

Elephants are large brained animals capable of relatively complex thought processes, and have the ability to learn. They have a wide range of calls and signals which they use to communicate different things such as caring for their young, reconciling differences and announcing their needs and desires just as humans use speech to communicate these things.

Elephants also use a range of non vocal means to communicate with each other, such as smell and touch. Just as humans cuddle their young to offer reassurance an elephant mother will use its trunk to caress its young and offer reassurance.

Despite what some humans like to think we are not the only species who have this wonderful ability to communicate with one another, and the similarities between different species communicative techniques are not that different. At the end of the day humans are animals too.
Further reading/References:
www.elephantvoices.orgwww.pbs.org www.sciencenetlinks.comwww.CNN.com

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