Gained in translation

We humans have much to say — but so do Earth’s other creatures, great and small. From birds chirruping to frogs croaking, the cackling of monkeys making off with your water bottle to the strange, plaintive songs of whales living deep in the seas, Earth is a noisome place. Every species speaks to its own, expressing voluminous information, from where to locate food to the risks of predators and the thrills of budding romance. But animals also communi-cate deeper feelings, from grief over losses of loved ones to anxiety and fear as their habitats are marauded by men. Scientists find animal grammars, syntaxes, intonations, even dialects are far more sophisticated than once imagined — beings in the animal king-dom speak to each other in polished vocal deliveries, bound by formal rules, delivered in rigorous phonetics.


Understanding this rich world is important for human beings. This communication is much older than us — while humans appeared on Earth six million years ago, the smallest bird began evolving 150 million years earlier. The amount of information, wisdom and emotion stored within the archives of animal language are mindboggling — as is the intriguing question of how and why human language split from its primate relatives to grow another way.

Discovering our shared linguistic roots — we each laugh, cry, adore and perhaps pray using words — with other animals can help us feel greater empathy towards all. It can also help us destress, realising we aren’t the only ones with something important to say.


However, the opportunity to appreciate animal communication might be shrinking rapidly. As Times Evoke’s global experts point out, anthropogenic or human-caused factors, from climate change to the destruction of habitats and the sheer racket our activities make, are impacting animal communication in multimodal ways. We are now impeding species’ abilities to live peacefully by resolving conflicts through conversation, to propagate or find food. The fear of losing this magi-cal world, and the chance to experience Earth from an animal’s ‘umwelt’ or perception, is now driving scientists, from bioacousticians to AI inventors, to map animal sounds. But there’s a lot we each can do, from reducing our hefty carbon footprints on Earth to simply learning to be quiet — and listen. Join Times Evoke in honing our senses to all the wondrous non-human words gleaming around us. These are the true stories of our planet.