Do Animals Talk To Each Other With Words That We Will Never Be Able To Understand?

reply to post by dreamingawake


The video you posted is very touching (except for the first minute or so) but I couldn't help thinking, the leopard was just playing with the baby monkey before it ate it. I wish I could see what ended up happening to the baby. Does the video say? I couldn't read the subtitles.

I'm sure leopard mothers don't teach their young not to play with their food.

I do believe that animals can talk to each other. I have 2 dogs: Harley, an Alaskan Husky, and Jack, and Akita/Wolf mix. Harley has been talkative since the day we brought her home. I have no idea what she's saying, but she'll stare dead at you and try to verbalize what she wants you to know.
I also believe they are telepathic to some extent. My pups have made up their own games they play during the day when they get bored. Harley will run into one of the dog houses, then Jack will circle the yard, stop in front of the occupied dog house, and bark at Harley, trying to get her to chase him. It's super cute to watch, but for the life of me I can't figure out how they came up with the rules of the game

My friend has 3 dogs and a cat. The dogs will let her know when the cat wants in/out of the house, or just whenever one of them wants in/out. It's the most bizarre thing.

I don't believe they have language, they do. Direct experience shows this to be true to the keen observer.

Bees dance, birds whistle, and the wolves howl.

Most are just too damned ignorant and arrogant to see how magnificent other creatures are out there.

In many ways, they are our superior.

I'm just glad to witness the dance of creation at play, hooray!!

reply to post by blocula

My husband and I have four dogs. Each comes with a very strong personality. They are loving pets. I know how to interpret their barks. I know a certain barking sound means someone is intruding, they hurt, they are happy etc..
That is all I know about their communication with me. However, they understand their names and simple phrases.
In some ways "dogs" at least are smarter than humans. They understand more of our language than we do of their language. When you think of it in those terms, maybe, we humans aren't as smart and superior as we think we are. Just sayin...

youtu.be...
Heres a lion that adopts an antelope and even trys to protect it from other lions.

Of course they "talk" to each other in secret...Ive been involved with herding breeds of dogs over 30 years...1st Collies,then Shelties and for the last 10 years,German Shepherds...Id be hard pressed to say how many times Ive caught them having little confabs among themselves and look all guilty and walk away very dignified after they saw me watching them..they have lives we arent supposed to know about.....I walked outside one night and found my little 35 lb female Sheltie standing on the chest of a 130 lb male Shepherd who was laying on his back for her...Id never seen them be so sociable before...friends yes,she was grown when he came home as a puppy and he grew up with her,,but never a hint they were so close...she hopped off and they both walked away...I dont know what they were doing....we're not allowed to know what they do away from us....but yes,they "talk"...

First, there is way to little variation for dogs to be barking to each other anything other than primitive emotions back and forth. Im sure they appreciate the nuances of it greater then we can, but lets refrain from the disney anthropormorphisms and understand were talking about an animal.

reply to post by dontreally


Whilst I agree there is little variation in a dog's bark, being vocal is not their primary source of communication and or comprehension. A dog's olfactory system is it's primary source of communication to others of it's species. It is so incredible that a dog can smell several dog's scent while walking in the morning for a few seconds then take a nap in the afternoon and process each scent detecting much information about the owner of each. They also have, like domesticated cats do, a type of body language they have developed especially for humans. They do not use this language with each other. I believe animals are like the Native Americans address them: As people. The Wolf Person or the Ant People. They are living, breathing, feeling, life and while their intelligence may appear to not match out own, at times they display empathy, emotion and sense of what is right that far outweighs our own.

I have been working with mice lately and was wondering about this question but it seems every question has some type of answer..

From what I understand when you hear mice with our hearing they arent to happy.. like one mouse grooming another to roughly or a male/male female/female mouse mounting another, they let our chirps or squeaks to tell the other mouse that they dont like it and to stop.. Or fights you hear alot of squeaking and chirps..

Anyway something else I learned that they talk in a lower untrasonic wavelength not able to be heard by us.. I am going to post some rats doing what I am talking about here so you guys can see what I mean.. I am curious though is to how many animals do this.. I would assume rodent family would all do this reffering to like gerbils, and hampsters and so on.. I am wondering if Sugar Gliders and chinchillas do the same thing.. Anyway here is some untrasonic rat talk for ya..





And here is what a rat typically sounds like.

reply to post by MollyStewart

Good Reply.

Whilst I agree there is little variation in a dog's bark, being vocal is not their primary source of communication and or comprehension. A dog's olfactory system is it's primary source of communication to others of it's species. It is so incredible that a dog can smell several dog's scent while walking in the morning for a few seconds then take a nap in the afternoon and process each scent detecting much information about the owner of each.

Thats true. Dogs do have an amazing ability to locate things based on smell.

They also have, like domesticated cats do, a type of body language they have developed especially for humans. They do not use this language with each other.

Oh. Im aware of canine demagoguery. They are quite good at it. My dog comes up to me gingerly, and places her head on my lap, putting on the cutest face she can, if she wants something from me.

I dont doubt for a second that in a very primitive way, they understand that humans react positively to those actions.

But theres a distinctiont between acting, and intuiting something, and consciously understanding something before doing it. I think an animal unconsciously acts that way to fulfill some basic physical or emotional need; to pee/poo, or play outside, or eat/drink.... 3 basic needs of a dog (besides sleep)....

I believe animals are like the Native Americans address them: As people. The Wolf Person or the Ant People

In the kabbalistic tradition, its taught that animals are the physical manifestation of spiritual realities or principles. Dog in Hebrew, Kelev, means "like the heart", which as we know, is clearly true. Dogs are like the anthropormic physical representation of this spiritual primciple. Analyze a dog, and you could pretty much see how true the ontological comparison between it and emotions are. .

To be human is to be intelligent. Us humans percieve a higher level of reality. Up here, we can understand the worlds below us ie; the physical world, animal kingdom, etc. Animals are the physical representation of qualities that exist within us, imprinted in us by the spiritual macrocosm around us. So, when we relate to a dog, were not merely relating to an animal, but a quality within our own selves.

I can definitely see a reasoning for the native american terminology "wolf person, "ant people". These creatures are merely an element of our personal self, spread across the physical creation. We are literally one with them.

Of course most animals have their own "language" sometimes its used to to find a mate, sometimes to warn of danger, sometimes to convey the location of food. Those are just a few examples.

We've examined the speech sounds animals make and for the most part we only found a handful of unique sounds. Most of them ARE random. The emotion and location of the sounds are a lot more important than the sound itself. Besides, we're also learning that long term memory is very important for language. The fact that we developed our long term memory might be the principle reason we developed a complex language while chimps are still hooting and banging their chest. But, on hte bright side, studies have shown the chimps to have a more photographic short-term memory. It allows them to see things precisely, as they happen, so that they can react.

I'm not saying they don't talk, but I think it's more improvised than our own is.

Dolphins, for example, don't display nearly the richness of language we subscribe to them in movies and fiction. The reality is that there's more going on than the words. And when you really think about it, their life isn't as complicated as our own. They don't write their language down either. So they may not need very many unique sounds to achieve the basics of survival.

Some language is more contextual. For example, in english, we might look at a friend who's preparing to eat and say "Give me your food." Using a contextual language, you might point at the food and say "food" and then point at yourself. In this case, a lot of the language is visual and not actually spoken. It's contextual and would not be easy to write down.

Sign language is similar. It's visual! Often times a word can mean more than one thing depending on the circumstances that surround it - your emotion, the look on your face, your gestures, etc.

I suspect a lot of animals use contextual language until they have written language.

reply to post by applebaum

Excellent point. Outside, Bath, Treat, to name most of them. Our dogs understand those. The other one understood Sit and others. But I don't understand any of their barks. I don't count their desperate barks since that's more emotion than sound. All the rest of the barks seem random to me. But if I had to judge who understood the other's language better, I'd say them.

But then I've never had to follow their orders.

(about 53 different words in this post, not including this sentence)

reply to post by jonnywhite

But, on hte bright side, studies have shown the chimps to have a more photographic short-term memory. It allows them to see things precisely, as they happen, so that they can react.

A written language is the main reason weve developed the way we have. its lengthened not only our memories, but has opened worlds of consciousness that werent present before.

The ancient Sumerians responsible for these innovations regarded them as 'gifts of the gods' ie; they were transmitted to them. Whether this was prophetically done, or physically done, we can only speculate. But clearly some massive changes occured some 5800 years ago that caused man to jump a few evolutionary steps forward, from a simple hunter gatherer to a complex thinker.

Originally posted by jonnywhite
We've examined the speech sounds animals make and for the most part we only found a handful of unique sounds. Most of them ARE random. The emotion and location of the sounds are a lot more important than the sound itself. Besides, we're also learning that long term memory is very important for language. The fact that we developed our long term memory might be the principle reason we developed a complex language while chimps are still hooting and banging their chest. But, on hte bright side, studies have shown the chimps to have a more photographic short-term memory. It allows them to see things precisely, as they happen, so that they can react.

I'm not saying they don't talk, but I think it's more improvised than our own is.

Dolphins, for example, don't display nearly the richness of language we subscribe to them in movies and fiction. The reality is that there's more going on than the words. And when you really think about it, their life isn't as complicated as our own. They don't write their language down either. So they may not need very many unique sounds to achieve the basics of survival.

Some language is more contextual. For example, in english, we might look at a friend who's preparing to eat and say "Give me your food." Using a contextual language, you might point at the food and say "food" and then point at yourself. In this case, a lot of the language is visual and not actually spoken. It's contextual and would not be easy to write down.

Sign language is similar. It's visual! Often times a word can mean more than one thing depending on the circumstances that surround it - your emotion, the look on your face, your gestures, etc.

I suspect a lot of animals use contextual language until they have written language.

edit on 3-9-2011 by jonnywhite because: (no reason given)

from our perspective their sounds might seem random, but i dont think they are. for example with dogs, what sounds like 2 or 3 barks in a row to us, might actually be the transmitting of entire sentences to eachother "in their own language"

Animals communicate with each other, yes. They have various ways of telling each other things are okay, if there is danger, telling others to go away, and greeting each other and getting to know a new animal in the surroundings.

We can attempt to translate what they're communicating by, for example - watching a rodent tap it's foot when it's startled, and seeing another a little way away start to tap it's foot too. We can assign meaning to actions through out own action or stimuli on what causes it. I recently found a ferret, and he and my mother male ferret will make noises to each other through their separate cages. They're quite sociable animals, and they're probably just trying to weigh the other up and prove they aren't a threat - there's nothing aggressive about the behaviour of them. My female ferret, on the other hand, isn't really bothered and doesn't make the 'talking' noises that the others do. But if she's annoyed, she'll bite, and body language is also a communication device for many animals. The flash of a rabbit/deers white tail alerts others to danger around them, etc.

On the other hand we barely understand ourselves and don't understand the human brain, so to try and understand animals is probably out of the question.

They are more intelligent than we give the credit for, though. I'm pretty sure of that.

reply to post by dreamingawake

The video brought tears to my
eyes - how very loving. So much
we don't understand about our
animal friends, myself as well
but they are so wonderful.

I believe the communication
between animals is as grand
as that among humans. Not
to mention they understand
our language as well. I see
that every day with my dog and
cat.

I swear when my cat had kittens she was singing to them in the wardrobe. Wish I'd taped her.

mammals/animals have been evolving for over 200 million years! www.earthlife.net... and modern humans have been evolving on earth for about 200 thousand! www.universetoday.com... which means that modern animals have been evolving 1,000 times as long as we have!...for every 1 year we have been here, they have been here 1,000! so theres no doubt to me that they, long ago, developed sophisticated languages that we dont understand...would'nt they have had to? or how else would they have gotten along with eachother and survived for such a long, long time?...

www.youtube.com...


www.youtube.com...



Yes they do. And you can understand if you listen I've found my cats talk to me psychicly. I'll be sitting at the pc then suddenly think of a glass of water - then kitty will be in the doorway, and sure enough he'll go to his water cup and look at it - demanding i go change it so he has fresh water

They're all telepathic, and are making fun of us humans behind our backs, laughing at the fact that we haven't progressed to the point where we can communicate through telepathy.