Interspecies communication
Interspecies communication is communication between different
Mutualism
Cooperative interspecies communication implies sharing and understanding information between two or more species that work towards the benefit of both species (mutualism).[citation needed]
Since the 1970s, primatologist Sue Savage-Rumbaugh has been working with primates at Georgia State University's Language Research Center (LRC), and more recently, the Iowa Primate Learning Sanctuary. In 1985, using lexigram symbols, a keyboard and monitor, and other computer technology, Savage-Rumbaugh began her groundbreaking work with Kanzi, a male bonobo (P. paniscus). Her research has made significant contributions to a growing body of work in sociobiology studying language learning in non-human primates and exploring the role of language and communication as an evolutionary mechanism.[citation needed]
Koko, a lowland gorilla, began learning a modified American Sign Language as an infant, when Francine "Penny" Patterson, PhD, started working with her in 1975. Penny and Koko worked together at the Gorilla Foundation in one of the longest interspecies communication studies ever conducted until Koko's death in 2018. Koko had a vocabulary of over 1000 signs, and understood a greater amount of spoken English.[1]
In April 1998, Koko gave an AOL live chat. Sign language was used to relay to Koko questions from the online audience of 7,811 AOL members.[citation needed] The following is an excerpt from the live chat.[1]
- AOL: MInyKitty asks Koko are you going to have a baby in the future?
- PENNY: OK, is that for Koko? Koko are you going to have a baby in the future?
- KOKO: Koko-love eat ... sip.
- AOL: Me too!
- PENNY: What about a baby? You going to have baby? She's just thinking...her hands are together...
- KOKO: Unattention.
- PENNY: Oh poor sweetheart. She said 'unattention.' She covered her face with her hands..which means it's not happening, basically, or it hasn't happened yet. . . I don't see it.
- AOL: That's sad!
- PENNY: It is responding to the question. In other words, she hasn't had one yet, and she doesn't see a future here. The way the situation is actually with Koko & Ndume, she has 2 males to 1 female which is the reverse of what she needs. I think that is why she said that, because in our current situation, it isn't possible for her to have a baby. She needs several females and one male to have a family.
Research observing cooperative communication has largely focused on primates, and predatory animals.
It is unusual for interspecies communication to be observed in an older animal taking care of a younger animal of a different species. For example, Owen and Mzee, the odd couple of an orphaned baby hippopotamus and a 130-year-old Aldabran tortoise, display this relationship rarely seen in the animal world. Dr. Kahumbu of the sanctuary that holds the two believes that the two vocalize to one another in neither a stereotypical tortoise nor a hippopotamus fashion.[7] Owen does not respond to hippopotamus calls. It is likely that when Owen was first introduced to Mzee he was still young enough to be imprinted.[citation needed]
Parasitism and eavesdropping
Unlike cooperative communication, parasitic communication involves an unequal sharing of information (parasitism). In terms of alarm calls, this means that the warnings are not bi-directional. It may be that the other species has simply not been able to decipher the calls of the first species. Much of the research done on this type of communication has been in bird species, including the nuthatch and the great tit. Nuthatches are able to discriminate between subtle differences in chickadee alarm calls, which broadcast the location and size of a predator.[8] Since chickadees and nuthatches typically occupy the same habitat, mobbing predators together acts as a deterrent that benefits both species. Nuthatches screen chickadee alarm calls in order to determine whether it is cost-efficient, in terms of energy consumption, to mob a particular predator, because not all predators pose the same risk to nuthatches as to chickadees. Screening may be most important in the winter when energy demands are the highest.
Work by Gorissen, Gorissen, and Eens (2006) has focused on blue tit song matching (or, "song imitation") by great tits.[9] Blue and great tits compete for resources such as food and nesting cavities and their coexistence has important fitness consequences for both species. These fitness costs might promote interspecific aggression because resources need to be defended against heterospecifics as well. So, the use of efficient vocal strategies such as matching might prove to be effective in interspecific communication. Hence, heterospecific matching could be a way of phrasing a threat in the language of the heterospecfic intruder. It could equally be well argued that these imitations of blue tit sounds have no function at all and are merely the result of learning mistakes in the sensitive period of great tits because blue and great tits form mixed foraging flocks together. While the authors agree with the first hypothesis, it is plausible that the latter also being true given the data on age and experience in primates.
Eavesdropping has been found in
Predator–prey
Much of the communication between predators and prey can be defined as signaling. In some animals, the best way to avoid being preyed upon is an advertisement of danger or unpalatability, or
Two examples of predator–prey signaling were found in caterpillars and ground squirrels. When physically disturbed, Lepidoptera larvae produce a clicking noise with their mandibles followed by an unpalatable oral secretion.[13] Scientists believe this to be “acoustic aposematism” which has only been previously found in a controlled study with bats and tiger moths.[14] While the defense mechanisms of ground squirrels to predatory rattlesnakes have been well studied (i.e. tail flagging), only recently have scientists discovered that these squirrels also employ a type of infrared heat signaling.[15] By using robotic models of squirrels, the researchers found that when infrared radiation was added to tail flagging, rattlesnakes shifted from predatory to defensive behavior and were less likely to attack than when no radiation component was added.
Allomones
An
Many insects have developed ways to defend against these
A third class of allelochemical (chemical used in
"Allomone was proposed by Brown and Eisner (Brown, 1968) to denote those substances which convey an advantage upon the emitter. Because Brown and Eisner did not specify whether or not the receiver would benefit, the original definition of allomone includes both substances that benefit the receiver and the emitter, and substances that only benefit the emitter. An example of the first relationship would be a mutualistic relationship, and the latter would be a repellent secretion."[18]
Kairomones
Synomones
Criticism
Social scientists and others have historically criticized research in interspecies communication, characterizing it as anthropomorphizing. This perspective has become decreasingly common in recent years. A 2013 TED Talk featured a proposal to construct an Interspecies Internet by presenters musician Peter Gabriel, Internet protocol co-inventor Vint Cerf, cognitive psychologist Diana Reiss, and director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms Neil Gershenfeld.[29][30] A follow-up workshop to review progress and plan future activities occurred in 2019 and was co-hosted by MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, Google, and the Jeremy Coller Foundation.[31] The ongoing efforts coalesced into a think-tank to accelerate understanding of interspecies communication. Workshops and public conferences were held in 2020 and 2021.[32][33][34]
See also
- Animal communication
- Anna Breytenbach
- Clever Hans
- Great ape language
- Human–animal communication
- Jim Nollman
- John C. Lilly
- Quorum-sensingcommunication in bacteria
- Symbiosis
Further reading
- McKenney David; Brown Kathryn; Allison David (1995). "Influence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Exoproducts on Virulence Factor Production in Burkholderia cepacia: Evidence of Interspecies Communication". Journal of Bacteriology. 177 (23): 6989–6991. PMID 7592496. P. aeruginosa exoproducts help B. cepacia to attach to different surfaces.
- The New Scientist: Lab chimp speaks his own language 2 January 2003, Anil Ananthaswamy
- Doctor Dolittle's Delusion, Subtitle: Animals and the Uniqueness of Human Language. 2004 Yale University Press by Anderson
References
- ^ a b "Koko's First Interspecies Web Chat: Transcript". Archived from the original on 6 February 2007.
- ^ Fichtel, C. (2004) Reciprocal recognition of sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi verreauxi) and redfronted lemur (Eulemur fulvus rufus) alarm calls. Animal Cognition 7:45–52.
- ^ Zuberbuhler, K. (2000) Interspecies semantic communication in two forest primates. Proc R Soc Lond Ser B Biol Sci 267:713–718.
- S2CID 45982940.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
- S2CID 25651463.
- ^ Owen & Mzee
- PMID 17372225.
- S2CID 19530765.
- ^ Phelps, S.M.; Rand, A.S.; Ryan, M.J. (2007) The mixed-species chorus as public information: túngara frogs eavesdrop on a heterospecific. Behav. Ecol. 18:108–114.
- PMID 23637901.
- ISBN 978-0-674-04379-4.
Others rely on the technique adopted by a wolf in sheep's clothing—they mimic a harmless species. ... Other predators even mimic their prey's prey: angler fish (Lophiiformes) and alligator snapping turtles Macroclemys temmincki can wriggle fleshy outgrowths of their fins or tongues and attract small predatory fish close to their mouths.
- ^ Brown, S.G.; Boettner, G.H.; Yack, J.E. (2007) Clicking caterpillars: acoustic aposematism in Antheraea polyphemus and other Bombycoidea. J Exp Biol 210:993–1005.
- S2CID 18306198.
- ^ Rundus, A.S.; Owings, D.H.; Joshi, S.S.; Chinn, E; Giannini, N. Ground squirrels use an infrared signal to deter rattlesnake predation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104:14372-14376.
- ^ .
- JSTOR 1294753.
- S2CID 33065758.
- JSTOR 1294753.
- ^ "kairomone, n.". OED Online. September 2012. Oxford University Press. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/241005?redirectedFrom=kairomone (accessed 3 October 2012).
- .
- ^ ISBN 978-0-470-01617-6.
- S2CID 36621985.)
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- S2CID 24971928.
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- ^ Dolgin, Elie (17 July 2019). "The Internet Is Coming to the Rest of the Animal Kingdom". IEEE Spectrum. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
- ^ Cerf, Diana Reiss, Peter Gabriel, Neil Gershenfeld and Vint (2013), "The interspecies internet? An idea in progress", TED, retrieved 15 August 2021
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Interspecies Internet Workshop". cba.mit.edu. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
- ^ "Conversations 2020 Public Conference". Interspecies Internet. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
- ^ "Conversations 2021". Interspecies Internet. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
- ^ "Interspecies Internet". Interspecies Internet. Retrieved 15 August 2021.