Animal Talk: Breaking the Codes of Animal Language [Hardcover]

Tim Friend (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 30, 2003

Is it possible that there is a universal language spoken and understood by all animals on earth, including humans? Is human language unique, as linguists and philosphers have taught for centuries, or could it share and combine well-developed components of other species' communications? Do you long to know what wild animals are discussing and what your dog, cat, bird, fish, or horse is really saying?

Animal Talk, the first authoritative, popular book about animal communication, answers these and other provocative questions with often astonishing news about the latest scientific discoveries. Using his ten years of field research and numerous interviews with preeminent scientists in the field and under the sea, veteran journalist and popular science write Tim Friend helps us understand what lies behind the eyes, within the sounds and scents, and beneath the flashy displays and postures of our animal neighbors.

The world has an estimated 10 million species, all chattering away with noisy and smelly abandon, using their own seemingly unique and baffling signals. Nonetheless, Friend reveals that animals and humans can easily understand each other because every creature on earth "speaks" a common nonverbal language -- an animal Esperanto that has developed through hundreds of millions of years of evolution. Through a skillful interweaving of amazing facts and compelling true animal stories, Friend demonstrates how similar human behavior and language are to other species', including the ways we attract members of the opposite sex, rear children, and compete in society.

A scientific Dr. Dolittle, author Tim Friend is your guide on a fascinating tour of the animal kingdom. Along the way, he enlists the enthusiastic translation services of the top scientists in animal communication to show a wonderful range of animals in action, to explain the intricate ways in which they use signals, and to interpret what they mean by them. From the Amazon and Central American rainforests to deep into the Ozarks, every environment Friend visits reveals a fascinating new insight and clue to the great puzzle of how animals communicate within and between species -- and how the many tongues, stripes, and resonances of the animal kingdom laid the original foundation for our own language.

Animal Talk tells the grand story of animal communication through the stories and signals of the animals themselves. Vital to our understanding of birds and bees, dogs and dolphins, and ourselves and our fellow primates, Animal Talk is also vital to the survival of our planet.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Friend, a longtime USA Today science writer, has written a delightful, entertaining and instructive book for the general public on animal communication. All kinds of animal lovers will enjoy his presentation of "the bigger picture" of animal talk in the wild-"how animals communicate with each other and what they spend so much time chattering to each other about." Friend provides readers with clear explanations of complex issues such as how the colorful and noisy signals of communication in the animal kingdom arose in the first place and to what extent animal systems of communication are similar to human language. Along the way, he impressively explores a wide range of related topics, such as how Descartes and Darwin influenced the study of animal sounds, the mating purpose of animal songs and the roots of whale communication research in Cold War technology. Friend is an engaging writer; throughout he displays a deft ability to capture the world of animal sound with just the right phrase, such as his description of tree frogs and insects in the Amazon rainforest "laying down a soulful energetic chorus like a choir at an old-fashioned, Southern tent revival," and his wry observation of rival male albatrosses attracting potential female mates by "clapping their beaks and moving their heads like Mick Jagger."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–A science reporter shows how a "new generation of scientists" has been "contributing to an increasingly rich appreciation for the intelligence and emotions that lie behind… animal eyes." Though it seems obvious now that life-forms evolving together on the same planet could be expected to have much in common, Western culture has denied human kinship with animals. Friend outlines the origins and fallacies behind the old beliefs; he also draws a distinction between anthropomorphizing and figuring out what people have in common with other species. A growing school of thought asserts that there is "one language with few words, and all species, including humans, continue to use it every day." Friend says that the sole topics of conversation, "regardless of race or species, [are] sex, real estate, who's boss, and what's for dinner." He illustrates his thesis with clear explanations of the science behind fascinating and far-ranging discoveries throughout the world and among many species. Much of the new knowledge has been made possible by new technology that allows us to detect, record, and analyze signals that were formerly beyond our perception, such as electrical signals or inaudible sounds. The information is organized into chapters such as "The Chemistry of Love," "Songs and Shouts," and "Flash and Dance," and the pages containing unexpurgated information about randy dolphin behavior, same-sex relationships in many species, wild elephant parties, and human pheromones will appeal to teens.–Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1ST edition (December 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743201574
• ISBN-13: 978-0743201575
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,104,510 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who Needs Dr. Dolittle?, March 9, 2004

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Animal Talk: Breaking the Codes of Animal Language (Hardcover)

Current understanding of human language says that we all have portions of our brains directly assigned to language processing, and that every human language is at foundation the same, with nouns, verbs, and so on all doing the same job in each. As described by one theorist, a man from Mars examining humans might find we were all speaking the same language, only in different dialects. What if we looked at an even broader sample of creatures on the planet? Tim Friend, a science journalist, in _Animal Talk: Breaking the Codes of Animal Language_, reviews all the many ways that animals have of talking to each other (not just by sound), to find that there is a far broader understanding between animals of different species (including humans) than we may have guessed before. Humans have developed remarkable and complex verbal languages, but it's the nonverbal communication that we often share with animals. It is not too surprising, given that natural selection and sexual selection have operated on us all from the beginning, that we animals share a range of signals. Not only that, but we talk about the same things every day: "... that is, sex, real estate, who's boss, and what's for dinner."

To be sure, reviewed here are many ways that animals communicate in which humans cannot participate. We don't use the pheromones that bacteria use to exchange information, nor do we signal bees with dances. But insects and animals use yellow or red colors as a universal signal for "stay away," and everyone knows what a rattlesnake's noise means. More significant, however, in Friend's book are the sounds that we share with other animals. Many of these are obvious. For instance, imagine you are talking to a baby; you instinctively use a high pitch and soft, smooth tones. On the other hand, if you are warning a child against touching a hot stove, you use a low pitch, harshness, and staccato. This is the sort of thing that all we animals do, universally. We humans might apply words to the sounds we emit, but we have growls, barks, and whines just as birds, dogs, and lions do. Friend draws upon the work of Eugene Morton to illustrate many instances of the grammatical rules of this nonverbal language. For instance, harsh, low frequency sounds mean the animal is thinking of attacking; high frequency sounds mean submission and lack of hostility if approached. A boss who is angry uses a low voice and stops at every word. A child who wants candy uses a high pleading voice, "Please, please, please." Using the grammar, it is possible for humans to make noises as interspecies communications, modifying the behavior of squirrels or even wolves.

In one species after another, Friend describes the different ways that dominance is asserted and settled. We aren't above such nonverbal communication. A couple of researchers went back to all the presidential debates since 1960. They found that they could pick, by deeper pitch and by voice accommodation patterns, the dominant speaker in each debate, and that the dominant speaker always went on to win the popular vote. (Perhaps the candidates now preparing for the debates ought to spend less time memorizing statistics and more time practicing pitch.) Friend's entertaining book shows that animals all over are using all sorts of surprising ways to talk to each other, and to us, and that if we will but listen, they have plenty to teach us, even about our own ways of communicating to each other.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful read!, January 4, 2004

By 

P. Degtjarewsky "jenniferdeg" (Orange County, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Animal Talk: Breaking the Codes of Animal Language (Hardcover)

I cannot recommend this book enough to others who are interested in learning about animal communication. The author makes complex theories fun, understandable and enjoyable to read. There is a section on vervets in chapter two that will blow your mind!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Probes all the potentials of animal communication methods, June 7, 2005

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Animal Talk: Breaking the Codes of Animal Language (Paperback)

Have you ever wondered if animals are 'talking' and if so, what they're saying? Scientists have been trying to decipher 'animal talk' for centuries, as scientist Tim friend explores in his Animal Talk: Breaking The Codes Of Animal Languages. Here's his Rosetta stone for understanding this language, fostering a readable, fun language while exploring serious scientific breakthroughs on the topic of animal communication. From biology to chemistry and beyond, Animal Talk probes all the potentials of animal communication methods.