Track 7

Unit 9

Linguistics

Animal Communication

Page 90

Extend the topic

Part A

So what would animals communicate about anyway? I mean, ideas, feelings.

Well, since there’s still no convincing evidence that animals are capable of complex reasoning, we believe they’re often communicating their feelings, what you and I would call emotions.

Wow, such as happiness, sadness, anger?

Well, we’re not sure that animals experience the same emotions as you and I, but some of their feelings are probably similar. For instance, emotions like fear, arise in a place in our brain that we share with many animals. So fear might feel similar for humans and animals. Another example is that some animals such as dogs and elephants seem to find joy in meeting friends and family. But we don’t yet know just how similar their feelings are to our own.

Right, because animals can’t tell us what they’re feeling.

True, one interesting idea is that animals experience emotions in a very pure way because their brain is less complex. For instance, when they feel joy it may be a kind of pure 100% joy, not a feeling like, I’m happy but…

I see, no buts for animals.

Right and if you think about it this is how we experienced emotions when we were small children. When we were happy, we were 100% happy. So maybe before our brain develops fully, we experience feelings that are similar to some animals.

In that case I’d have to say that I’m a bit envious of our animal friends. Who wouldn’t want to feel 100% happiness?