Page 65 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #05

AGENDA ANALYSIS

Denise Herzing (inset) PET THOUGHTS
and the spotted AND FEELINGS
dolphins she works with.
Many people would argue you
don’t have to‘talk’to animals
in order to communicate
with them.It's a notion that
is undoubtedly attractive,but
there is little scientific evidence
to b
to back up their claims.
S
Susie Shiner and her partner
Pau ul Braithwaite are animal
sha
amans who converse with
do estic pets using“imagery,
ought and feeling”.
tho
T
They conduct sessions with
clie
ents and their pets,relaying
wh hat the animals want to
mmunicate to their owners.
com
In the one I attended,they
'int terpreted' for two terriers
cal led Skippy and Scamper
Skippy“loves the children”,
– S
sie explained,but“wants
Su me more quiet time."
brains,
y
, at least when you are
som
` ALEX THE discussing parrots and corvids,” Skippy was seeing things he’s
She also described how
AFRICAN
she says. She was inspired to
GREY PARROT work in the field of animal afraid of –“a white flash,either
cognition by the pioneering lightning or fireworks”.“He Denise Herzing: Brian Skerry/National Geographic Creative/Alamy; dolphins: Rodrigo Friscione/Getty; Sue Savage-Rumbaugh: Barcroft/Getty; Susie Shiner: Jenny Gooda l
UNDERSTOOD zoologist Donald Griffin, who hates fireworks,”said his owner.
THE CONCEPT OF said communicating with an Shaun Ellis has run captive
said communicating with an
animal could be a “window into wolf centres in the UK and lived
ZERO AND BASIC its mind”. with wild wolves in the USA.
PROBABILITY.” “I mean, come on, we all He says there is a unique bond
read the Dr Doolittle books as between wolves and dogs and
children,” she says. “We want humans that began with them
to understand what these becoming dependent on us.
animals are thinking – and I “When you are in the
don’t believe Wittgenstein [the moment with them,they
early 20th century Austrian connect with everything we
philosopher] was right when feel,”he says.
he said, ‘If a lion could speak, He believes wolves can be
we could not understand him.’” used to help children.“Wolves
are not afraid of emotions,”he
MASTER MIMICRY says. "Learning to understand
There are many scientists them can help kids deal with
working today trying to use their own feelings of anger
the latest techniques and of sadness."
technologies to communicate
with a wide range of species. Susie Shiner
Besides Pepperberg, there’s describes herself as
an animal shaman.
also Dr Denise Herzing, who
has taken on the considerable
task of trying to ‘talk’ to wild
Atlantic spotted dolphins, while
a bonobo called Kanzi has
acquired a vocabulary of
some 350 words (which

Sue Savage-Rumbaugh with
Kanzi the bonobo, who can
‘say’ more than 300 words.

BBC Wildlife 65