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Prairie Dog Speak

nr

Well-known member
reader (the Second) said:
My son just sent me this. Sounds like a joke from The Onion. I'm a linguist which is why he sent it to me and it's very authentic in terms of describing how linguists approach studying and documenting animal communication and language in general. I don't know what to think but thought especially you mid-Westerners would find it intriguing.

Language of Prairie Dogs Includes Words for Humans
By Tania Soussan
Associated Press
posted: 06 December 2004
10:19 am ET


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ Prairie dogs, those little pups popping in and out of holes on vacant lots and rural rangeland, are talking up a storm. They have different "words'' for tall human in yellow shirt, short human in green shirt, coyote, deer, red-tailed hawk and many other creatures.

They can even coin new terms for things they've never seen before, independently coming up with the same calls or words, according to Con Slobodchikoff, a Northern Arizona University biology professor and prairie dog linguist.

Prairie dogs of the Gunnison's species, which Slobodchikoff has studied, speak different dialects in Grants and Taos, N.M.; Flagstaff, Ariz.; and Monarch Pass, Colo., but they would likely understand one another, the professor says.

"So far, I think we are showing the most sophisticated communication system that anyone has shown in animals,'' Slobodchikoff said.

Slobodchikoff has spent the last two decades studying prairie dogs and their calls, mostly in Arizona, but also in New Mexico and Colorado.

Prairie dog chatter is variously described by observers as a series of yips, high-pitched barks or eeks. And most scientists think prairie dogs simply make sounds that reflect their inner condition. That means all they're saying are things like "ouch'' or "hungry'' or "eek.''

But Slobodchikoff believes prairie dogs are communicating detailed information to one another about what animals are showing up in their colonies, and maybe even gossiping.

Linguists have set five criteria that must be met for something to qualify as language: It must contain words with abstract meanings; possess syntax in which the order of words is part of their meaning; have the ability to coin new words; be composed of smaller elements; and use words separated in space and time from what they represent.

"I've been chipping away at all of these,'' Slobodchikoff said.

He and his students have done work in the field and in a laboratory. With digital recorders, they record the calls prairie dogs make as they see different people, dogs of different sizes and with different coat colors, hawks, elk. They analyze the sounds using a computer that dissects the underlying structure and creates a sonogram, or visual representation of the sound. Computer analysis later identifies the similarities and differences.

The prairie dogs have calls for various predators but also for elk, deer, antelope and cows.

"It's as if they're trying to inform one another what's out there,'' Slobodchikoff said.

So far, he has recorded at least 20 different "words.''

Some of those words or calls were created by the prairie dogs when they saw something for the first time. Four prairie dogs in Slobodchikoff's lab were shown a great-horned owl and European ferret, two animals they had likely not seen before, if only because the owls are mostly nocturnal and this kind of ferret is foreign. The prairie dogs independently came up with the same new calls.

In the field, black plywood cutouts showing the silhouette of a coyote, a skunk and an oval shape were randomly run along a wire through the prairie dog colony.

"There are no black ovals running around out there and yet they all had the same word for black oval,'' Slobodchikoff said.

He guesses the prairie dogs are genetically programmed with some vocabulary and the ability to describe things.

Slobodchikoff has also played back a recorded prairie dog alarm call for coyote in a prairie dog colony when no coyote was around. The prairie dogs had the same escape response as they did when the predator was really there.

"There's no coyote present, but the prairie dogs hear this and they say, 'Oh, coyote. Better hide,''' Slobodchikoff said.

Computer analysis has been able to break down some prairie dog calls into different components, suggesting the critters have yet another element of a real language.

"We're chipping away with this at the idea that animals don't have language,'' Slobodchikoff said.

Surely when the prairie dogs saw the Black Oval Plywood they all said
"Whatsat?? "
Interesting article. Thank you for posting. At church today a friend was telling about babysitting their son's Black Lab who would search the house for all their shoes if they left him alone and pile them all in his bed. Our lab also took shoes when left alone. Strange how animals are programmed.
 

Cal

Well-known member
Check out second to last picture near the bottom of the page...hilarious!

http://www.schoepski.com/states/south_dakota/dog_hunt.htm
 

Brad S

Well-known member
Do I ever have crow to eat. There is a "protected" dog town in town that my kids like to observe. My kids say that they throw out a cheesy poof and the pdogs have a call and they all come up. Oddly the Pdogs won't come if I'm out of the truck. I told them that only porpoises had that kind of language skill - woops.

Ok R2, they said "most edveloped nonhuman language skills'" You buying that or going with porpoise?
 

Mike

Well-known member
Anyone who has ever observed a cow licking her calf will realize that the cow is trying to communicate with it. A bull breeding a cow usually makes sounds toward the cow too.

I say it's no big deal about the pdogs language skills. Just a bunch of nuts trying to round up more affection for them.

Next they'll be claiming a pdog alphabet. :roll:
 

TXTibbs

Well-known member
"Slobodchikoff has spent the last two decades studying prairie dogs and their calls, mostly in Arizona, but also in New Mexico and Colorado."


Ok, this Slobodchikoff dude is one of them over paid yuppies who in my opinion spent the last 20 years of his professional life wasted!!! Honestly, what the hell do we care even if the PD's do have a communication system? Its not gonna cure Cancer! It would be an interesting study to work on I'm sure, but it's not worth a salary of 20 years! And quite frankly....this Slobodchikoff character must be a bone head if it took him 20 years to finally determine all this.....seems like all he did was compare PD barks with different objects, animals, etc.. I'm sure it's true...I'm sure PD's do have different barks and chirps for different objects and emotions with different objects, but WHAT THE HELL DO WE CARE! To me a PD bark is a PD bark.
 

IL Rancher

Well-known member
Why do you think people shoot those darn dogs, you should hear what they are saying about us :roll:

I have no doubt in my mind that they can communicate. Think a lot of animals can and I do believe there is a language to it. I also don't think it matters because I don't think they are sitting around saying "Hey, how was your day at work Bob? Jimmy giving you a hard time again?"
 

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