Bees Dance and Whales Sing: The Mysteries of Animal Communication

From this book youngsters will learn that ``anthropomorphism''--ascribing human characteristics to animal communication--can be harmful to science. But they will also discover intriguing and surprising behavioral traits that will increase curiosity about human-animal relationships. In addition to the title song and dance, seven chapters explain how one fire ant tells sister worker ants where food is, how pet dogs and cats use body language, how bats call ultrasonically and fin whales and elephants rumble infrasonically, stet comma and how chimps and apes communicate with humans through Ameslan--American Sign Language. Facklam's smooth, conversational style makes fact-reading easy: ``. . . the ocean is not a quiet place. . . . Oysters clack, shrimp holler, and toadfish bleat like foghorns.'' Each chapter briefly describes specific experiments and research leading to knowledge about animal communication. Although Johnson's black-and-white halftone drawings add variety pictorially, they impart little zest or additional information to the text. Ages 8-11. (June)