I have always wondered if animals had their own language. Also if the sounds they make have any meaning behind it. Fortunately I am not the only person who wonders this.

Researchers  have been studying a group of seven different animals, Bengalese finches, Carolina Chickadees, Free-tailed Bats, Rock Hyraxes, Pilot whales, Killer Whales, and Orangutans. With these animals they have been analyzing their vocal sequences and characterizing them with Markov Chains. Markov Chains are a chain of numbers or letters, and the next number or letter in the sequence depends on the one that comes before it or a few before. The next number can be based off the ones before or from a history of notes with the particular animal.

Through the experiment the Chickadee, finch, bat, and whales did not fit the Markovian model, but a more complex model. The orangutan and hyrax did not fit any of the models which researchers do not understand.  Most of the animals  the researchers say, had sequences that fell in with a non-Markov chain. This threw researchers through a loop and showed them how the Markov chain might not be the best way to study the sounds.

Another thing observed is the chatter animals like birds and monkeys have and how humans assume its their way of communicating. Researchers observed how monkeys  have a particular scream when one of their predators is around. But after all the monkeys were in the tree, the same scream would continue as their predator stayed around. Biologist Tecumseh Fitch at the University of Vienna says, if this scream had a meaning to it then the same tone would not continue the way it does. Fitch explains how this would make more sense as a reaction to the predator.

As far as researchers know, humans are the only animal with a language. In order for something to be considered as a language, it has to be learned instead of an instinct. This is where the languages of birds and whales fit in. Whales teach their calves certain calls which over time turns in to an adult whistle and call.

Studying animals to see if they truly have their own language, and that humans aren’t crazy for mistaking their sounds as conversations, is still a very hard subject. What is holding researchers back is the lack of data. More mathematical analyzes need to be done, but researchers only have a small amount of recordings to work with.

Researchers have not yet been able to do away with the null hypothesis, animals do not have a language, because all the evidence has not been found yet. “We’re still a very, very long way from understanding this transition from animal communication to human language, and it’s a huge mystery at the moment” states zoologist Arik Kershenbaum.  I believe with new mathematical models and more data gathered, one day soon researchers will be able to tell us positive news about animals languages.