Page 66 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #05

AGENDA ANALYSIS

he expresses through a keyboard creating a spoken language –
or laminated cards) and can humans, of course, are very good ANIMAL MAGIC: FROM CHATTY CHIMPS TO
understand more than 3,000. at imitation, as are parrots, while
Both the intelligence and our great ape cousins are not. There have been a number of films and TV shows premised
communicative abilities of “What our research shows on the idea that humans and animals can communicate.
cetaceans – dolphins and whales is that animals [such as killer
– came into the public eye earlier whales] have the ability to learn
this year when it was reported socially through imitation, and
that a captive killer whale called this means they can develop
Wikie had been taught to imitate cultural or group traditions,”
human speech. Much of the Abramson explains.
press coverage exaggerated what It has long been known that
had really happened, however: separated orca populations have
“Killer whale learns to talk to different ‘accents’ and hunt
humans: LISTEN to world’s first different prey animals, and this,
talking orca say ‘hello’,” ran the scientists postulate, leads to
headline in the Express. social and then genetic isolation
But, according to José and eventually speciation. Indeed,
Service dog: Rob Felt/Georgia Tech; Tarzan: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy; Lassie: CBS Photo Archive/Getty; Flipper: MGM-TV/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock; Skippy: AF archive/Alamy there was never any intention research is that it’s shown killer
many scientists want to split
Abramson, of the Pontificia
Universidad Católica de Chile
killer whales into four separate
and who carried out the research,
species – the point of Abramson’s
that Wikie should understand
whales have the mimicry ability
the words she was taught to say –
for this to take place.
quite the reverse, in fact.
“We didn’t want to teach her
DOLPHIN CHAT
Herzing, in contrast, wants to
language, we wanted to show
find out what her wild spotted
her novel sounds that were
meaningless,” says Abramson.
dolphins will do with a piece
of technology that bridges
The idea was to demonstrate that
she has a huge ability to mimic
the gap of communication
other sounds, which scientists
between them and us. Using a
Cheetah, a chimpanzee,wasTarzan’s
believe is a key component of
computer system called CHAT
sidekick and comic relief,a courrt
(it stands for Cetacean Hearing CHEETAH r
jester to the ape-man’s king.He e
and Telemetry), she and her mimicked human be ehaviour,
THERE’S
` NOT A LOT colleagues at the Wild Dolphin including laughing an nd scream ming,
Project, with the help of the
and made chimpanz zee gruntss and
OF EVIDENCE Animal Computer Interaction screeches interprete ed byTarzan.
Lab at Georgia Institute of
“Cheetah. What you drink?""
THE DOLPHINS Technology, have created artificial [Cheetah leans in, bu urping in
whistles that refer to a series of
Tarzan’s face]
UNDERSTAND objects – sargassum seaweed, “Schnapps?”
THE MEANING a scarf and a rope – that the
OF THE WORDS.” dolphins like to play with. Think These ‘words’ can be played But what’s the point of all
of it like creating words in
Esperanto for human toys.
Esperanto for human toys underwa ater, and anything this? What does it reveal about
d
h
the dolp hins say in response the dolphins or other species
d up by a set of
is picked for that matter? “They are social
hydroph ones. Herzing says mammals and share similar
w have three years of
they now social complexities to us, but
data, and they live in a completely alien
d it’s clear the dolphins
are copyi ing the newly created environment,” says Herzing.
whistles, , though in ways they “They share the idea of families
hadn’t qu and friends and joy and pain,
uite expected.
“They are mimicking and we wonder what we can
xxx x x x in differe ent frequencies or learn from that. Developing a
xxx xx x x
x x modulat ing the signal a bit, and two-way communication system
xxx xxx x x
the comp puter only recognises like CHAT could help us to be
x
x
x
x x x xx x x if it’s a p retty tight match,” she more open to other species and
: Xxxxx Xxxx X
ur big conclusion is they
x xx x x says. “Ou their expertise.”
xxxxxx xxxx xx x are tryin g to mimic in lots of could benefit from developing
Herzing suggests humans
s, but there’s not a lot
cool way
xx
of eviden systems for communicating
nce they understand the
Service dogs can
‘talk’ to people function of the words yet.” with other species – indeed,
using a bite-plate.
Spring 2018