Animal Intelligence

Gorillas and humans use similar body language to communicate, reports the U.K. Daily Mail. Researchers at the University of Sussex studied a family of gorillas in a British animal park.

Psychologist Dr Gillian Sebestyen said: “We shared 23 million years of evolution with great apes and then diverged approximately six million years ago. Gorillas have [...]

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It has been a long time since I posted here. It’s not for lack of material. Animal Intelligence doesn’t have a lot of readers, but you few brave souls continue to send me good stories.
For example, here’s a story about Yosuke the Japanese parrort. When Yosuke escaped from his cage, he was able to [...]

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A recent Discovery News article indicates that some primates may have a richer vocabulary than previously believed — but that their language may just take an unfamiliar form. Author Jennifer Viegas writes:

While such syntax-like behavior has been described in other species, such as whales and dolphins, the new findings are the first to clearly demonstrate [...]

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Here’s an MSNBC article from 04 April 2007 about two swans released on an ape preserve in Iowa. The apes were pleased to see the birds, and will even get a chance to name them.

The eight bonobos at the Great Ape Trust of Iowa howled Tuesday as they watched two trumpeter swans dip into a [...]

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The Associated Press reports that birds may be able to understand each others’ language. Randolph E. Schmid writes:

Nuthatches appear to have learned to understand a foreign language — chickadee.
It’s not unusual for one animal to react to the alarm call of another, but nuthatches seem to go beyond that — interpreting the type of alarm [...]

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As research into animal communication continues, scientists are gaining insight into the language of individual species. Recent research for example, has allowed scientists to delve into the language of whales, including different whale “dialects”. A recent article in Live Science explains:

Deep below the ocean’s surface, blue whales are singing — and for the first time, [...]

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