Songs, Roars, and Rituals: Communication in Birds, Mammals, and Other Animals

221 Pages·2002·3.55 MB·English

by  Lesley J. Rogers

SONGS,
ROARS, AND
RITUALS

LESLEY J. ROGERS
AND
GISELA KAPLAN
COMMUNICATION IN BIRDS,
MAMMALS, AND OTHER ANIMALS
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS' CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
Copyright © 1998,2000 by Lesley J. Rogers and Gisela Kaplan
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Second printing, 2002
First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 2002
An earlier version of this book was published in 1998 by Allen & Unwin as
Not Only Roars and Rituals: Communication in Animals
Drawings by Tina Wilson
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rogers, Lesley J.
Songs, roars, and rituals: communication in birds, mammals, and other animals I
Lesley J. Rogers and Gisela Kaplan.
p.cm.
Rev. ed. of: Not only roars and rituals. 1998.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
ISBN 0-674-00058-7 (cloth)
ISBN 0-674-00827-8 (pbk.)
1. Animal communication. I. Kaplan, Gisela. II. Rogers, Lesley J. Not only
roars and rituals. III. Title.
QL776 .R64 2000
591.59-dc21 00-025602
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a c&t dpedd to-Id ~ all ~

CONTENTS
PREFACE IX
()tte
WHAT IS COMMUNICATION?
1U1{j-
SIGNALS AND SENSORY PERCEPTION 26
1kee
IS SIGNALING INTENTIONAL OR
UNINTENTIONAL? 48
q()'{'u
COMMUNICATION IN BIRDS 70
qw.e
COMMUNICATION IN MAMMALS 100
$h LEARNING TO COMMUNICATE 128
$ett.eft THE EVOLUTION OF COMMUNICATION 150
t«t/d
HUMAN-ANIMAL CONTACTS 169
REFERENCES 185
INDEX 201
FIGURES
1 . 1 Sending and receiving a signal 3
1.2 Flight-intention postures and displays 16
1. 3 Threat postures 18
1.4 Feather ruffling in a galah 23
2.1 Sound spectrograms of butcherbird songs 30
2.2 Sound spectrograms of noisy calls 31
2.3 Sound spectrograms of the alarm calls of chickens 43
2.4 Open-mouth play-threat display of an orangutan 47
4.1 Postures of the tawny frogmouth 78
4.2 Mimicry of human speech by a galah 82
4.3 The antiphonal song of two Australian magpie larks 90
4.4 Mimicry of a kookaburra by a magpie 97
5.1 Genital display of a marmoset 102
5.2 Facial displays of orangutans 104
5.3 Facial displays of marmosets 105
5.4 Vocalizations of marmosets 113
6.1 The sensitive period for song learning 134
6.2 Song tutors 137
6.3 Mimicry of a human voice by a seal 141
6.4 Developmental changes in the wrr calls of vervet monkeys 146
PREFACE
It is reasonable to ask at the beginning of this book why communication
in animals interests us. What can knowledge of animal communication
achieve, both in terms of understanding our own environment and in
terms of our ethical position toward the natural world?
Researching animal behavior is a humbling experience. It shows how
little we know about the hundreds of thousands of species that inhabit
the globe and how little we know of the ways in which they communicate
within and between species. How exciting it is when we think that per
haps we may have cracked another part of a code in this enormously
large world of secret codes.
We are constantly discovering more about the complex capabilities of
animals. No one can help being impressed by the wealth of social subtle
ties and complexities that individual species display. In the songs, roars,
and rituals they perform, we begin to see meaning. Here is our personal
wonder, pleasure, and excitement in studying animal communication.
These are qualities that ultimately sustain the most enduring inquiries.
We also know only too well that new knowledge of animal behavior is
needed urgently. Many species are tumbling into extinction because of
direct human intervention and human mistreatment of the precious leg
acy of the natural world. In some cases, we do not even know why. In oth
ers, we know why, but have found few acceptable ways of coexisting with
other species. Instead, we have deprived them of habitat and conditions
they need to survive. Some of that mistreatment, exploitation, or coercive
control may in part be based on ignorance. As the social philosopher
Hannah Arendt once said, most people who "do evil do not intend to do
evil." The rate of extinction of species shows that we are doing evil and,
ironically, in so many instances we are doing this while actually proclaim
ing our liking for animals. We harm them even by assuming that they