Is Anyone Listening? What Animals Are Saying to Each Other and to Us

In this entrancing report, marine biologist Herzing (Dolphin Diaries) details her work for the Wild Dolphin Project researching how the animals communicate with humans and one another. Herzing describes her efforts to “talk” with the wild dolphins she encounters while diving in the Bahamas, recounting how she successfully redirected a pod by mimicking the head nods dolphins use to suggest turning. Other strategies are more technologically sophisticated. For instance, Herzing discusses training dolphins to mimic specific whistling sounds to request toys using a “two-way computer system” capable of emitting noises underwater and signaling to researchers when a dolphin’s high-frequency whistle matches that associated with a toy. AI promises even more advanced ways to decipher animal chatter, Herzing contends, explaining how algorithmic analysis of dolphin speech suggests that the ordering and repetition of certain noises appears to follow some rules, which indicates the animals might have a primitive form of grammar. The firsthand accounts of studying dolphins in the wild position Herzing as a kind of aquatic Jane Goodall, and her recollections are elevated by philosophical musings on how scientists should think about the minds of other animals (“We should be looking to develop species-specific definitions for ‘types’ of intelligence, rather than resorting to human comparisons”). Animal lovers will be eager to dive in. Photos. (Nov.)