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New Research Could Help Create Device to Decipher Animal Communication

Research into black-tailed prairie dogs’ communication could lead to a device that can decipher the language of domestic animals, dogs in particular.

Source: The Dodo/Youtube

Arizona-based biologist Con Slobodchikoff has spent his career studying communication within prairie dog communities. The author told Morning Edition that this research could lead to a better understanding of the communication systems in other species as well. Lobodchikoff has been interested in the possibility of other animal language systems for years and even wrote a book about it in 2012 titled, Chasing Doctor Dolittle.

“I found that we had an enormous number of papers in the scientific literature that pointed to or suggested that other animals do indeed have their own languages,” Slobodchikoff said. “So I think that the possibility is huge.”

Now Slobodchikoff is working to build translation technology for research in animal language systems. He is the CEO of Zoolingua, which is a startup working to build the technology to translate both the verbal and somatic languages among animals. The main goal is to translate the language of domestic animals, and dogs in particular.

“The idea is that we have a device that you can point to a dog, and the device analyzes the dog’s body language and vocal signals and says, ‘I’m hungry or please let me out, I need to pee or you’re scaring me,’ or something along those lines,” Slobodchikoff said.

All of this is thanks to research into prairie dog communication.

“Over a series of experiments, we have found that prairie dogs have a very sophisticated system of communication that I’m comfortable calling language,” Slobodchikoff said.

Slobodchikoff and his team discovered that prairie dogs can describe the physical attributes of predators through their unique alarm calls. With just a chirp, a prairie dog can communicate the size, shape, speed, and even the clothing of humans.

“We found that prairie dogs can describe not only the species of predator that is approaching, such as coyote, human, or hawk, but they can also describe the physical features of a predator,” Slobodchikoff said.

This device could be revolutionary for human-animal relationships. Get ready to know what your furry friend is trying to say to you!

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