Being able to chat with your dog or finally understand what your cat wants would be a dream come true for many pet owners.
But this scientist, dubbed “the real Doctor Dolittle,” says he already can.
Dr. Arik Kershenbaum, an expert in animal communication at the University of Cambridge, says everything from a dog's whine to a dolphin's whistle is full of meaning.
But did Dr. Has Kershenbaum really cracked the animal code or is he on the wrong track?
Web spoke to the real animal whisperer to put his skills to the test.
Dr. Arik Kershenbaum, an animal communication expert at the University of Cambridge and author of Why Animals Talk, says he can use science to understand what animals are saying
Speaking to Web, Dr. Kershenbaum: “Animals evolved communication because it is useful to them and in that sense it must have meaning.”
“Listening to male birds singing could mean, “This is my territory, come and mate with me.”
“What you also get are animals that convey a feeling for something; For wolves, that could be loneliness, happiness, fear or worry.”
But to understand what animal noises mean, according to Dr. Kershenbaum doesn't just listen.
He said, “We can only truly understand what animals say if we understand what animals do.”
“We look at the variety of sounds in a particular utterance and try to relate it to what is currently happening to the animal.”
But how well does Dr. Kershenbaum animals?
To demonstrate his skills, Web sent him footage of five different animals for analysis.
Listen to these recordings below to see if you can do it better than the real Dr. Dolittle.
Howling Wolves
For most people, wolves howling is nothing more than frightening, but for Dr. To Kernshenbaum, the howl of a wolf tells a rich story.
Dr. Kershenbaum recorded video of a wolf howling and ran it through special software so he could take a closer look at the sound.
This showed that this wolf was lonely, perhaps after being separated from his pack, and was trying to find his friends.
He explained: “It's a long, flat howl that doesn't change very much. This is typical of this type of solitary wail.”
Dr. Kershenbaum explains that wolves use this type of howl when they want to stay in touch with their pack from a distance or when males disperse in search of mates.
Dr. Kershenbaum converted the wolves' howls into a graphical representation, which allowed him to study the sounds in more detail
Dr. Kershenbaum says the wolf in the video (pictured) is probably howling because he's lonely. The long, flat tones of its howl indicate that it is searching for the other members of its pack
But if you look closely, you can also see where other wolves join in their rising and falling howls.
“These people who are involved here.” [towards the end of the recording] “Pacing up and down is much more typical of the excitement you feel when everyone starts joining in and crying together,” says Dr. Kershenbaum.
In his notes on the spectrogram, Dr. Kershenbaum even points out the moment in which the first wolf almost gets excited despite his loneliness.
According to the Wolf Conservation Center, which released the video, there is a good chance that Dr. Kershenbaum is right with his analysis.
The wolf in the video is Zephyr, a captive-born wolf that lived at the sanctuary in South Salem, New York.
There were few other wolves in the sanctuary at the time, so Zephyr may have been feeling lonely.
According to the Wolf Conservation Center, Zephyr was also normally inseparable from his partner Kestral, who is not seen in this video.
Long, flat tones are characteristic of lone wolf calls (left), whereas “shaky” howls show where the wolves are excited and are not trying to keep the pitch constant
Dolphin whistles
To test his animal skills, Web played Dr. Kershenbaum presents a recording of bottlenose dolphins taken in Cardigan Bay, Wales (in the video above).
Dolphin communication is one of the most difficult to study.
Not only is it very difficult to observe dolphins in the wild, but even when scientists are able to do so, their way of communicating is fundamentally different from anything else.
He explained: “With dolphins it's really difficult because we don't even know what their language would be like if they had one.”
But that was what Dr. Kershenbaum doesn't stop from finding out some of the hidden meanings of this recording.
For a tougher test, Web shared a shot of dolphins in Cardigan Bay, Wales (pictured). Dr. Kershenbaum says dolphin communication is one of the most difficult types of communication to study
This graphic shows the original record of bottlenose dolphins in Cardigan Bay, Wales. Dr. Kershenbaum says he spotted the repeating pattern, which is likely a dolphin's distinctive whistle
In the recording, he identified a repeated pattern of the same whistle.
He suspects that this could be a “signature whistle” that corresponds to the dolphin’s name.
This suggests that this is a recording of one dolphin greeting another.
Once again Dr. Kershenbaum's prediction nailed it, based on what we know about dolphin communication.
Bottlenose dolphins use distinctive whistles, unique to each animal, to identify each other.
These whistles are so distinct that dolphins even develop regional accents influenced by habitat and community.
However, the record still holds secrets.
For example, he notes that one whistle in the sequence was different from all the others.
He concludes: “I don’t know if a dolphin would think it sounds the same just by looking at it.”
“While they appear to be different, we simply don’t know whether these whistles would have the same cognitive impact.”
It's not easy to talk about dolphins, and Dr. Kershenbaum points out in his comments that we can't know for sure what each part of the dolphin's communication might mean
Pigs grunt
Despite their common depiction, pigs are extremely intelligent and have a wide range of emotional and social bonds.
Recent studies have even used AI to understand their complex grunts and squeaks.
We sent Dr. Kernshenbaum uploaded a video that, unbeknownst to him, showed a few pigs on the farm preparing to be fed by their owner.
Can this real Dr. So Dolittle understand what is being said?
Once again, Dr. Kershenbaum subjected the converted sounds to graphic analysis to get a better insight into what was happening.
“These are short-range calls that are often referred to as 'contact calls' because they help other animals know who is nearby and that everything is OK,” he says.
For most animals this would contain some basic information, such as: B. who is making the noise and something about their emotional state.
Scientists say the frequency of a pig's grunts reveals a lot about its mental state. For example, it might tell you that these happy pigs think they are about to be fed
Dr. Kershenbaum points out the different calls in this spectrogram. He says this could include information about what type of food is present or the pig's emotional state. For example: “Get out of the way, I'm hungry”
“However,” explains Dr. Kershanbaum, “in highly intelligent animals like pigs, these calls could also contain a lot of additional information.”
Dr. Kershenbaum points out the large degree of variation and diversity that you can see in the spectrogram below.
He says: “There could be information about what type of food is available, or more detailed information about how the animal is doing.” For example: “Get out of the way, I'm hungry.”
Although he emphasizes that these grunts are not “words” in the human sense, it appears that Dr. Kershenbaum can add pig to the list of languages he speaks.
Birdsong
Next we sent Dr. Kershenbaum recorded a northern cardinal's mating call, which it uses to mark its territory and attract a mate.
Compared to the great complexity of the dolphins' various whistles and clicks, he believes this challenge is much simpler.
“Bird song (at least male song) is almost entirely about territorial advertising and attracting mates,” he said.
We have Dr. Kershenbaum sent a recording of a northern cardinal's mating call, which it uses to mark its territory and attract a mate. Compared to the great complexity of the dolphins' various whistles and clicks, he believes this challenge is much simpler.
“There is no additional information other than: “If you are female, mate with me. If you’re a man, stay away.”
He also points out that the complexity of birdsong can be misleading.
If you contact Dr. Viewing Kershenbaum's graphical analysis of the recording, you'll see what appears to be a complex arrangement of notes.
Bird song, he explains, is far more complex than it needs to be to convey such a simple message.
He added: “This is because the more complex the combination of notes, the more impressive the performance is and the more likely it is to impress other birds.”
“The song is complex, but the complexity itself is the message. “There is no more information.”
Although the birdsong looks complex, that complexity itself is the message. The more complex the song, the fitter the bird is as a mate, but the song contains no other information
Cats howl
Finally we have Dr. For our ultimate test, Kershenbaum was compared to the one animal we would all like to understand: the domestic cat.
In the clip we watched Dr. Kershenbaum showed a cat whining.
According to the original poster, the context that Dr. What is unknown to Kershenbaum is that a second cat had just been adopted into the house and was taking over this unfortunate cat's territory.
But perhaps unsurprisingly at this point, nothing was missed by our in-house translator.
Dr. Kershanbaum realized that this was not friendly interaction. He points out the overlapping shaky lines that show the two cats trying to outdo each other to assert dominance
“It’s not a very friendly interaction,” says Dr. Kershan tree.
“Notice the overlapping lines. “The two cats call at the same time and try to outdo each other.”
In the spectrogram of Dr. Kershenbaum, you can clearly see how the lines representing pitch waver up and down.
He explains: “Similar to birds, the more impressive performance indicates dominance.”
“Therefore, each cat tries to produce impressive sounds by varying the pitch greatly, but at the same time making their own calls sound better than those of others.”
This unfortunate cat had just seen a new cat introduced into the house who was just taking over her territory. Like Dr. As Kershenbaum predicted, they howled to stake their claim
How to Speak Animal
If you're like Dr. If you want to speak animal-like about Kershenbaum, the good news is that his abilities are not superpowers.
In fact, he says there are some simple characteristics that can be easily used to better understand almost any animal.
One of the easiest emotions to recognize is fear, which is encoded in the same way in humans and many other living beings.
“A scream is a sign of fear in most animals and that shouldn't be that surprising because when you go into shock there's a sudden expulsion of air and you don't bother to control your vocal cords,” he said.
If you're like Dr. If you want to speak animal-like about Kershenbaum, the good news is that his abilities are not superpowers. In the film with Eddie Murphy (pictured), Dr. Dolittle a veterinarian who can talk to the animals
Dr. Kershenbaum's tips for talking to animals
Dr. Kershenbaum says there are some simple auditory and physical signs that are common to most animals:
aggression
- Lower sounds are usually made by larger objects, so animals use lower sounds to appear larger.
- Animals also use body language and postures that make them appear larger.
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- When animals don't want to appear threatening or appease a rival, they use higher pitched tones that make them sound younger and weaker.
- Animals also crouch lower to the ground to appear smaller.
fear
- When we are afraid, we cannot control our vocal cords.
- Combined with a sudden exhalation of air, a scream occurs.
This means that animal noises that sound like screams are a good sign that an animal is very scared.
Another way in which communication between animals and humans is similar is through soothing sounds.
He says the cooing sounds one might use to comfort a child “enable broader understanding across species.”
Furthermore, says Dr. Kershenbaum says there are fundamental similarities in animal communication that can help you understand your pet.
He added: “When a dog is feeling aggressive, it will make a deep sound, because purely physically, how a sound is produced, a deeper sound means a larger object, just like a double plinth produces a much lower pitch than a violin .”
“So the animal will try to make itself appear larger by using a lower pitch.”
Likewise, when animals are aggressive, they try to use body language that makes them appear larger.
On the other hand, when a dog or wolf behaves submissively, they make high-pitched sounds that make them appear smaller.
He says, “Just like with noise, when a dog wants to appease and not appear threatening, he will crouch down and make himself smaller.”
Could we all talk to animals one day?
If there are all of these ways to understand animal communication, it's not too far-fetched to imagine that one day we might all be able to talk to animals.
In fact, there are a number of projects that aim to build a device that will do just that.
Some scientists claim that we could one day translate animals into any language we choose by using AI to recognize the patterns in animal sounds.
Dr. Kershenbaum himself says that it would be fairly easy to develop an AI that automatically interprets animal sounds.
He even jokes that he could imagine mail carriers wearing a device that would tell them whether a dog's bark was aggressive or friendly.
But Dr. Kershenbaum doesn't believe there is any way to ever “translate” animals into English.
The big obstacle to this science fiction dream, he explains, is that animals don't have language.
“All animals communicate, they communicate things with each other all the time, but a language is different,” he explained.
“Language is about the ability to communicate any concept on any number of topics.”
“There are no limits to what human language can say, and as far as we know, no other animals can communicate this unlimited, unfettered amount of information.”
The best evidence for this is the observable behavior of animals, he explains.
Dr. Kershenbaum says: “You don’t develop a property like language for nothing. “So the best evidence that animals don’t have language is that they don’t seem to do the things for which language would be useful.”
Petpuls, a South Korean company, uses an artificial intelligence collar (pictured) to “give your dog a voice” and analyze how the animal is feeling. But Dr. Kershenbaum says it can't “translate” your dog's barking because dogs don't have language
“You don’t need this unlimited communication capacity that we use to build things, trade, and write literature.”
“All the things that make language useful to us we don’t see in any other animal.”
Since animals don't have language, according to Dr. Kershenbaum just doesn't have anything we can translate.
He added: “Our concept of communication is so closely linked to our understanding of language that we cannot even imagine communication that is not language.”
“But animal communication is designed to communicate between these animals, it didn’t evolve to communicate with us.”
“I would like to have this translation thing and like Dr. Be Dolitte, but that's not my job; “We need to understand animals because they are not what we want them to be.”
To find out more, you can contact Dr. Check out Kershenbaum's book, Why Animals Talk: The New Science of Animal Communication.
How well do you know your cat? The 13 Secret Signals Cats Give Their Owners
Cats are often labeled as distant and solitary creatures who spend their days plotting the downfall of their human owners, but such characterizations couldn't be further from the truth.
In fact, our feline friends are constantly communicating their feelings of affection to us, be it through their whiskers, tail, face, or body language.
In her insightful new book, “Kitty Language: An Illustrated Guide to Understanding Your Cat,” author Lili Chin explains—with the help of animal behaviorists—how to interpret your pet's movements.
Below are some of the most common behaviors and what they might signal.
Our feline friends are constantly communicating their feelings of affection to us, be it through their whiskers, tail, face, or body language