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THERE is no form of animal communication quite like the human language.
In fact, some might argue that the concept of language is one that is unique to humans.
While animals can communicate with each other, and sometimes even with other species, only humans are able to combine various elements – such as sounds and letters – with rules such as syntax and grammar to create infinite combinations.
That is before even taking into account the many different languages across different groups of humans, let alone more subtle variations such as dialects and accents.
However, are there subtleties in animal communication that we often overlook? For instance, do goats have accents?
Verdict:
TRUE
A 2012 study published by two scientists from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences at the University of London shows that young goats adjust their bleats according to their social groups.
Dr Elodie Briefer and Dr Alan McElligott observed 23 newborn goat kids, recording their bleats over the first week of their lives during which they stayed close to their mothers.
Then, the kids were randomly split into four separate gangs each with five to seven animals. When the kids were five weeks old, their bleats were recorded again.
Five weeks is a crucial period because it “corresponds to the time when, in the wild, they join their social group after spending some time hidden in vegetation to avoid predators,” Dr Briefer explained.
Full analysis of the young goats’ cries revealed that the bleating of kids raised in the same social groups were similar to each other, and continued to gain even more similarities as they grew older and spent more time together.
Prior to the findings of this study, the prevailing theory was that goats’ vocal sounds were determined chiefly by genetics.
“It is possible that this is related to forming a sort of group identity, wherein knowing members of your own group is actually important, and also knowing if other individuals actually don't belong to that group,” Dr McElligott said.
According to Dr McElligott, goats are the first ungulate to show evidence of this sort of vocal plasticity.
Humans, bats and whales are the only other mammals known to adjust their vocalisations in response to their environments.
“To find it in an animal species like a goat with a relatively simple vocal repertoire – I mean goats only produce a couple of different kinds of calls – that's why it's particularly surprising,” he said in an interview with NPR.
“Our results support the growing and controversial evidence that social context plays a role in shaping vocal communication systems,” wrote the authors of the study.
“Such surprising plasticity could be present in most mammals, but has gone undetected.”
Sources:
1. https://www.qmul.ac.uk/sbbs/news/items/youve-got-to-be-kidding-me.html
3. https://www.npr.org/2012/02/18/147090051/you-say-nay-i-say-neigh-goats-have-accents
4. https://www.livescience.com/18505-young-goats-accents-vocal-learning.html
5. https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/upbleat-finding-kids-start-to-sound-12-02-15/
