Question: Can animals actually comunicate to each other?

Sara Imari Walker answered on 13 Jun 2011:

Hi gkennedy! Animals can communicate in a lot of interesting ways that are not necessarily understandable to us humans. Some of my favorite examples are dolphins and whales who use sonar (sound vibrations traveling through water) to communicate. In fact whales had global communication systems long before humans! Whales can hear each other clear across the Earth if the seas are quiet (of course our noisey boats cause trouble for that). Elephants are another interesting example. They use stomping, causing vibrations in the ground, to communicate even over long distances. They can tell each other where good food is, and what “highways” to take as safe passage. Chimps and orangutans are closer to humans, using vocalization to communicate as well as signing and body language. Their language isn’t as sophisticated as ours but they are smart enough to talk to each other! Also interesting is chemical signaling used by lots of creatures including microscopic bacteria. Bacteria can tell if they are near lots of other bacteria based on the chemicals in their environment. So yes!!! Animals do communicate – just because they don’t speak English doesn’t mean they aren’t talking 😉