Link: Giraffe
Communication
I find this article to be very interesting because most
people seem to overlook the communication process among animals.
I chose this article because my favorite animal is a giraffe.
Giraffes are stereotyped to be quiet, gentle creatures. According to
this article, giraffes have a language of their own and communicate
in low tones. These tones are sometimes so low that it'll take
evaluating them with infrasound. Unfortunately using certain
sound detecting technology can be very time consuming and expensive.
Fortunately there are two types of communication
processes that humans can study. Giraffes can communicate with
sounds. The other process is with body language. The most interesting
fact I found was that male giraffes make coughing noises to attract
female giraffes. Another example of communication with sounds is
between a mother giraffe and her offspring. Mother giraffes make
whistling noises at her offspring. An example of giraffe body
language is when giraffes are communicating with necking. It actually
looks quite violent. I will find a video of necking and post it in my
comments box.
After reading this article, I agree with the statement
that giraffes are smarter than what we give them credit for. I would
definitely like to learn more about how my favorite animals
communicate. I find it fascinating that these quiet creatures have a
language that is so quiet it almost feels secretive. I feel that this
topic affects the world because it shows that animals such as
giraffes are not as inferior compared to the human species. They are
capable of creating their own language system just like we are. It just
puts it in prospective that humans overlook a lot of qualities from
animals which they used to survive and evolve.
So to end this with a quote: Knowledge “speaks” but
wisdom “listens”
I think that this is a very interesting idea and it makes me think, what kind of communication systems do other animals have? I have heard that dolphins and orcas are very intelligent animals, and even have their own languages too. Their languages are like humans in the sense that they differ among different groups. If you take a dolphin from one group and put it with a different group far away, it may have trouble communicating with the new group, because it cant understand their language.
ReplyDeletethis article about the draft communications make me think back to articles I've read about how plants have hidden communication systems as well. Its so amazing the things exist in the world around us!
ReplyDeleteThis article raises a lot of questions for me not only on how animals communicate but how intelligent they really are. If they have hidden ways of communication maybe they also are more intelligent than we expect but we just haven't learned enough to find out
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize giraffes sleep only a few hours each day; I would have thought that large body would require more rest, but I guess they move slowly so they don't use up a whole lot of energy. I wish the article had given more of an explanation for the statement that "giraffes are much smarter than we have given them credit for", my curiosity is piqued! Thanks for the interesting article; this is the 3rd one I've seen about animals, neat that when asked to research language you all thought about animals!
ReplyDeleteAnimals seem to be a common topic when language is brought up. It's funny how people think alike. However, I never would have thought to study how a giraffe communicates and uses language. This is importune for our minds with questions about what language is and how it affects not only humans, but the whole world. Now I am starting to think about language differently. Thank you for allowing my mind to explore and learn something new!
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the coolest articles I've read! I love animals and to gain more knowledge about them is so awesome to me. Three major facts that interested me were that giraffes communicate with such low tones that they have been known to pick up early signs of natural disasters, so cool! The second was that they make noises during their sleep, the article compared it to sleep talking for a human which I thought was pretty interesting. My third fact was more of a question, it was interesting to wonder why female giraffes haven't been spotted necking and ill so what noises do young giraffes produce if any to communicate?
ReplyDeleteI did not know that giraffes speak so low that humans can't hear it. That is very impressive. I wonder if it's part of a defense mechanism so that they can survive granted they are so big that who would want to mess with a giraffe in the wild. Hopefully one day better and cheaper equipment will become available and it'll be finally studied more in depth. I think that all animals don't get the credit they deserve. They are smart creatures and they might seem simple but I believe that their communication can be complex as well.
ReplyDeleteThat was an interesting article. Have you ever seen how long a Giraffe's Tongue can be?
ReplyDeleteYes. It's insane. I actually fed a giraffe before. I loved it! :)
DeleteIf anyone is interested, this is a video of giraffes necking each other :)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDhNutbXpFE