Posts tagged language
Goats Pick Up Accents From One Another!
Take kids with different accents, have them hang out together for a few weeks, and suddenly they’re all talking alike, and have picked up each others’ accents! The goats’ ability to modify their calls indicates that they have vocal learning - previously only recognized in some species: like us, “birds, whales, dolphins, bats & elephants.”
Escaped domestic parrots teach wild birds to speak English! What’s more, talkative parents may well pass along this second language to their chicks.
A similar phenomenon occurred in Australia where some “lyrebirds still reproduce the sounds of axes and old shutter-box cameras their ancestors once learnt.”
(click photo for full article)
Parrots name their children!
Each parrot has its own signature call that others use to address it. Just like with human babies, parrot parents name their offspring, even before the babies can communicate themselves. (aww!)
What’s more, throughout their lives, the parrot younglings sometimes slightly adapt their names - and teach these nicknames to their pals.
The Dolphin Communication Project is currently figuring out how to have a two way conversation with dolphins!
Image courtesy Flip Nicklin/Minden/FLPA
