Track 3

Unit 9

Linguistics

Animal Communication

Page 85

Try it out!

Okay on a related note, too common but very different modes of animal communication are acoustic signals or sounds and chemical signals.

Acoustic signals can travel long distances and do so almost instantly. These sounds can also be altered in useful ways. For instance, the pitch, loudness and rhythm of a sound can be changed. This allows animals to communicate different meanings.

Like acoustic signals, chemical signals can travel long distances, too. But they require much more time to do so because they depend on moving air or water. Similar to acoustic signals, chemical signals can be altered in many ways. For instance, a little bit of a chemical can attract other animals while a greater amount of the same chemical can repel them. Chemical signals can also be used for marking territory and trails.