Wildlife communciation/observation - Asktheanimals

reply to post by TrueBrit


Hi TrueBrit. I can always count on you for thoughtful and intelligent replies and I'm glad you took the time to post, so thank you. What you say about domesticated animals is true and perhaps I didn't make myself clear I was really only referring to truly wild animals.

You say that between us humans we have language and can communicate clearly but there is one example of how we often fail to convey the very message we were hoping to. Our words are often misconstrued and in the case of Phil Robertson put through a blender and come out completely different from what was said in the first place. It's hard enough for people to communicate with precision and it is much more difficult to do so with wild animals. But that is not to say that we do not communicate with them - we do in a very direct and primal way - not through words but through the attitudes of our bodies and through a world of smells humans can barely detect but many animals can read with great precision. A bear for instance could likely tell from a distance what you ate at your last meal and probably deduce something of your mental state and possibly intent. It's been proven that bears who have been wounded by hunters are shy of the smell of gunpowder and gun oil and associate it with pain. They may even have been prompted to attack by it in an act of self-defense.

Through the use of tracking one can learn a great deal about any animal you wish to study - it's size, general health, what it eats, where it sleeps, it's gender, etc - rather mundane information but sometimes much more intimate things are revealed and while I can offer no scientific rationale it happens all the same and suddenly you get glimpses of how they feel about you or other people or even about how they sense the world around them.
It's difficult to describe but as with any activity when done with full concentration and discipline often an unexpected world beyond has it's curtain pulled back and we can step through for a brief while.

You are correct that we will never be able to have the level of communication that we do between people with wild animals. That is not to say that communication doesn't happen or that the messages we get are always misunderstood or interpreted correctly. I know from personal experience that it does happen. Not every time and not under all conditions but there are things we as humans can do to increase both the amount of time we can observe an animal and to allow them to continue their normal activity without interference.

I think you underestimate both the ability of animals and people to give and receive information from each other. Native Americans will tell you that you can even speak with trees or rocks or the sky. To them it was normal that one would speak to animals and not even a challenge. I don't claim to know the validity of their claims but given their universality among aboriginal peoples I personally will give them the benefit of the doubt.

Modern man has lost touch with the very planet he draws life from.
This thread has no other intent but to close that gap just a little.