How Many Languages Do Animals Speak?

We are already familiar with the fact that one way of communication in animals is through the use of sound. Dogs barking, cats meowing, and birds chirping are just some of these common languages.

The truth is, animals speak a wide variety of languages that are in fact innumerable. This, of course, is dependent on the type of species and the type of environment a particular group lives in.

Besides, even if animals lack the ability to speak using words just like humans, they can communicate using various ways like non-verbal actions. The following are some of these ways.

Animals can also relay messages by producing chemicals. One good example is the way the Queen ant orders its workers on what to do by producing chemicals and rubs it to the workers using pheromones. The workers then relay the message to others. It ranges from simple community activities to territorial conquest.

Animals can also use their physical appearance as signals for other animals. Some animals tend to acquire horrible appearances in order to startle their predators to avoid eating them.

Some animals do the otherwise. Animals like peacocks tend to display their attractive feathers in order to attract their potential mate.

Aside from physical appearance, body language is also a way for animals to display how they feel and what they want. bees, for example, tend to perform “dances” by moving their bodies. This is very useful in telling the direction of flight to other bees in the colonies. It can also be done to find a mate.

In the bees world, according to bee experts, there are two hypotheses on how bees communicate. The first theory is called “waggle dance” or “dance language” theory. The second theory is called “Odor Plume” theory. In a nutshell, using smell/odor, the foragers find the florals with the best quality nectar/pollen and then perform dance movements to lure the worker bees to follow. However, there are some controversies and academic debates around these theories.

• Interestingly, animals like whales, dolphins, bats, and hummingbirds have shown their capabilities to learn new languages. These animals usually utilize different clicking patterns in order to convey messages.

Studies show that communication among living organisms has a genetic basis. In other words, most animal species are already born with the ability to decipher and speak the language of their species.

• As mentioned above, the geographic location to where they were born does not matter. As long as they are “talking” with member of their species, speech is already an innate trait. This can also be observed in animals like dogs also have learned to understand some human words and simple sentences.
• However, it is still important to note the difference between learning new animal language and acquiring the ability to understand them.
• In the Kingdom, animals are more likely to do the second rather than the former.

Basically, animals use language typically just the same way humans do. They “speak” in order to let other animals they exist, to warn other animals about any threat or danger, to find their mates, and to mark their own territories.