"Animal communication doesn’t need to resemble human language to be full of meaning and nuance. Arik Kershenbaum delivers an expert overview of the astonishing discoveries made in the last few decades" —Frans de Waal
From leading zoologist Arik Kershenbaum, a delightful and groundbreaking exploration of animal communication and its true meaning
Animal communication has forever seemed intelligible. We are surrounded by animals and the cacophony of sounds that they make—from the chirping of songbirds to the growls of lions on the savanna—but we have yet to fully understand why animals communicate the way they do. What are they saying? This is only part of the mystery. To go deeper, we must also ask, what is motivating them?
Why Animals Talk is an exhilarating journey through the untamed world of animal communication. Following his international bestseller, The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy, acclaimed zoologist Arik Kershenbaum draws on extensive original research to reveal how many of the animal kingdom’s most seemingly confusing or untranslatable signals are in fact logical and consistent—and not that different from our own. His fascinating deep dive into this timeless subject overturns decades of conventional wisdom, inviting readers to experience for the first time communication through the minds of animals themselves.
From the majestic howls of wolves and the enchanting chatter of parrots to the melodic clicks of dolphins and the spirited grunts of chimpanzees, these often strange expressions are far from mere noise. In fact, they hold secrets that we are just beginning to decipher. It’s one of the oldest mysteries that has haunted Homo sapiens for hundreds of thousands of years: Are animals talking just like us, or are we the only animals on the planet to have our own language?
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Arik Kershenbaum, who already has a dedicated following thanks to his The Zoologist’s Guide to The Galaxy, takes us on another imaginative journey into the lives of animals. Kershenbaum has a rare talent for scientific storytelling. In Why Animals Talk, he adeptly translates a rigorous body of scientific material and some exceptionally thorny concepts into a narrative that is inviting and accessible to a broad range of readers. Wolf howls, dolphin whistles, parrot squawks, and the strangely captivating song of the hyrax—these come to life through Kershenbaum’s words and through his ingenious use of line-drawn spectrograms, which allow the reader to 'hear' animals in a new way. Instead of trying to judge animal communication by human standards, Kershenbaum guides us to toward a more productive and interesting approach: He asks us to step outside ourselves, outside our own perceptual and linguistic world, to apprehend animals on their own terms, understanding how their unique forms of communication have helped them solve unique evolutionary challenges. Read this book and, I promise, you’ll never listen to animals in the same way again.
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Jessica Pierce, author of Who’s a Good Dog?