Hey guys, welcome back! In case you missed part 1, go and check it out right now! As promised, we are back with the second part! Last time, we discussed dogs and lions, two animals who live in completely different environments. This time we will discuss more complex forms of communication, in fishes and even insects. So let’s dive right into it.
We’ll start with dolphins, probably one of everyone’s favorite fish (We have a whole list). Dolphin communication is similar to that of humans in some ways. They use a combination of clicks, squeals and whistles to talk amongst their pod, the social group in which they live. These are very complex sounds, so much that each dolphin has a unique whistle pattern to identify itself, and mother dolphins continuously whistle their pattern to their child, probably to make their baby memorize these sounds. Dolphins are known to chatter continuously with each other, indicating active conversation. Whales also use a similar form of communication, in a large pod, each whale has a unique pitch and speed that make it easy to identify them. Another prominent feature in whales and dolphins is echolocation. They emit high-frequency clicks, which bounce back after intercepting any object, which can be anything, from prey to a rock or even a ship, and different frequency clicks help them to recognize the different types of objects. Still we have a lot to explore when it comes to echolocation in the sea.
Enough about land and sea animals. Let's look up, high in the sky and meet our friends who dive right into the clouds! Now we are gonna talk about bats who communicate, using chirps, screeching and songs instead of squeaks and whistles. What they do share with dolphins and whales is the ability of echolocation, which helps them to catch their prey!
Now that we are discussing animals that fly, let's talk about birds. Unlike bats, birds don’t have echolocation, but they do have loud calls for all kinds of stuff from mating to predator alerts, they also use body language and behavior, which vary from species to species. We can also observe extensive mating rituals in birds, such as courtship behavior which includes food delivery, dance moves (displays), and mutual preening (they have it so easy…right?).
These were all big animals that we can see and hear clearly, but have ever given a thought to how insects communicate? We know they aren’t animals per se, but the sheer amount and variety we have in them make them worth discussing.
Let’s begin with bees. How bees communicate is very fun, and it’s called the waggle dance. As you can guess from the name, honey bees ‘dance’ to communicate with each other, shaking their abdomen and buzzing their wings to indicate the direction and distance of nectar or maybe their hive, to understand better, just imagine a honey bee shaking its behind vigorously, sorry for putting that image in your mind, but hey, now you’ll know where the best nectar is (probably not but still…). In the case of ants, unfortunately, they can’t dance so they leave behind chemicals, called pheromones, while walking, which the other ants detect using their antennae. Using this, they can know about everything from colony activity to food location. Guess we can learn teamwork from them.
This list of animals is never-ending, and so are their different communication methods. Here we have tried to discuss some major animals but you can always find more if you look for them.
P.S. Did you know that the ant population is much larger than the human population, so large that there are around 1.6 million ants per human being??
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