What is animal communication?

Have you ever wondered what your pets are trying to tell you? When a happy cat curls up on your lap and starts rumbling, it’s not just being cute! Join Mira and Finn as they uncover the wild, invisible world of animal communication! Did you know that a cat's purr might actually be a secret healing superpower with special sound vibrations? Or that giant elephants can talk to each other from six miles away using deep rumbles that they feel through the bottoms of their feet? That’s right, they listen with their toes! We're diving deep into the ocean to hear humpback whales sing complex songs that travel for over a thousand miles underwater. Plus, we'll shrink down to bug size to learn how tiny honeybees perform a special waggle dance to give their friends exact GPS directions to the best flowers, and how ants leave stinky, invisible scent trails to guide their colony straight to a tasty dropped potato chip! Tune in to find out how animals use sound, dance, and even smells to survive, find friends, and send amazing messages without ever saying a single word!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Welcome to Science Is Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira! And I'm Finn! Finn, when you want to tell me something from across the house, what do you do?

SPEAKER_01 1:01

I usually just yell your name as loud as I can. Or I send you a funny emoji on my tablet.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Exactly! We humans use our vocal cords to speak words, or we use technology. But did you know there are animals that can talk to their friends who are over a thousand miles away without even using a phone?

SPEAKER_01 1:21

No way! A thousand miles! That's like talking to someone all the way across the whole ocean!

SPEAKER_00 1:28

It really is! And today we are diving into the wild, secret ways that animals talk to each other. From cats purring on your lap to tiny bees dancing in the sky to give each other exact directions.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Wait, bees can dance? I gotta hear this. Let's get into it!

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Let's start with an animal you probably see every single day. When a happy cat curls up on your lap and gets comfortable, what does it do?

SPEAKER_01 1:56

It makes that soft, rumbly, purring sound. It's so cute. It's like they have a tiny motor running inside them. It is super cute.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

But did you know cats don't just purr when they are happy? It's actually a super complex way of communicating. They also purr when they are scared, stressed, or even when they are hurt.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

Wait, why would they purr if they're hurt? If I'm hurt, I definitely don't make happy motor sounds.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Because the purr is actually a secret healing superpower. Scientists have studied this and found that a cat's purr vibrates at a very specific speed, between 25 and 150 Hz.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

What exactly is a Hertz? Is it like a heartbeat or a musical note?

SPEAKER_00 2:46

It's a measurement of sound waves. It measures how many times the sound vibrates per second. And get this. Scientists hypothesise that the vibrations between 25 and 50 Hz might actually be the exact right speed to help heal broken bones.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Are you telling me a cat is basically a walking, furry doctor? That is wild!

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Yep, it's a fascinating theory. And even if they aren't healing themselves, purring is a super complex way they communicate, whether they are stressed, scared, or perfectly happy.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

So when my cat is purring on my lap, is she healing me too?

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Actually, yes. Studies show that petting a purring cat can lower human blood pressure and decrease stress. Animals have these incredible ways of sending messages and using sound to survive. Even in ways we don't always understand at first.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Okay, so cats use tiny buzzing vibrations. What about the giant animals? Do they have secret powers too? They sure do.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Let's travel back to 1984. A brilliant acoustic biologist named Dr. Katie Payne was visiting the Washington Park Zoo in Oregon. She spent a whole week just watching the Asian elephants.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

Elephants are huge. Do they make loud noises? I've heard them trumpet in movies.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

They do trumpet loudly through their trunks when they're excited. But Dr. Payne noticed something much weirder. While she was sitting by the enclosure, she didn't hear a sound, but she felt a heavy throbbing in the air.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

A throbbing, like when a big truck drives by and shakes the windows. Exactly like that.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

She described it as feeling like thunder inside her chest, but the sky was completely clear. She realised it felt just like the lowest bass notes on a giant church organ.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

So what was causing it? Were the elephants making invisible sounds?

SPEAKER_00 4:46

Yes. She brought special acoustic recording equipment the next day and discovered something mind-blowing. The elephants were talking to each other using something called infrasound. Infrasound? Does that mean it's underneath normal sound? Basically, yes. It's a deep rumble so low in frequency that human ears literally cannot hear it. But these infrasound calls are so powerful, they can travel up to six miles across the African savannah.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Six miles? But if the sound is travelling that far through the dirt and trees, how do the other elephants even hear it?

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Here is the craziest part. They don't just hear it with their big floppy ears. They feel the seismic vibrations travelling through the ground, right through the sensitive skin on the bottoms of their feet.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

They hear with their toes. That is the weirdest and most awesome thing I've ever heard. It's amazing!

SPEAKER_00 5:41

The vibrations travel up their legs to their inner ear. It helps them warn their families about danger, coordinate movements, or find food, even when they are miles apart in the thick forest.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Okay, so elephants can talk to each other from six miles away by rumbling the ground. Is there any animal that can talk from further away? Oh, absolutely!

SPEAKER_00 6:03

For that, we have to go deep into the ocean. Dr. Katie Payne's research partner, Dr. Roger Payne, made another massive discovery in the 1960s. He found out that whales sing songs.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Whales sing! Like with a microphone and backup dancers.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

No microphone needed, just huge lungs. Humback whales can sing continuous, complex songs that last up to 20 minutes. And all the males in a group will sing the exact same song, but they change the tune every single year.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

That's longer than my favourite pop songs. But the ocean is huge. How far does the sound actually go?

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Well, sound travels four times faster in water than it does in the air. Blue whales and fin whales make calls that are so incredibly loud and deep, scientists calculate their infrasound voices can travel up to 1,500 miles across the ocean.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

1,500 miles? That's like yelling from New York and having someone in Florida hear you perfectly.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Exactly! They can literally communicate across entire ocean basins. But not all animals need to be giant or loud to talk to each other. Let's look at insects. Have you ever heard of a scientist named Carl von Frisch?

SPEAKER_01 7:25

No, I haven't. Did he study bugs?

SPEAKER_00 7:29

He did. He won a Nobel Prize in 1973 for figuring out how honeybees talk to each other. And they don't use sound at all.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Do they buzz secret Morse code messages with their wings?

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Nope, they dance. It's called the waggle dance. When a scout bee finds a fantastic patch of nectar-rich flowers, she flies back to the dark hive and dances in a figure eight shape on the honeycomb.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

A dancing bee? But how does dancing help the other bees find the flowers?

SPEAKER_00 8:00

It's a tiny living GPS system. The angle of the bee's dance tells the others exactly which direction to fly relative to the sun. And the amount of time she spends waggling tells them approximately how far away the flowers are.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

That is the coolest thing ever. A tiny little insect doing math and dancing at the same time to give GPS directions.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

It really is a miracle of nature. And it shows why animal communication is absolutely vital. Without these secret languages, animals couldn't survive. They use them to find food, warn each other about predators, and keep their families together.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

Are there any other weird ways bugs talk? What about ants? I always see them walking in a perfect straight line on the sidewalk. That is a great observation.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Ants don't use sound, and they don't do a waggle dance either. They actually use smells. A famous biologist named E. O. Wilson discovered that ants leave invisible chemical trails called pheromones.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Ooh, so they leave a smelly trail of footprints for their friends to sniff. That's kind of gross.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

It's a little gross, but super effective. When a scout ant finds something amazing, like a dropped potato chip, it runs all the way back to the nest, leaving a specific scent trail behind it.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Okay, I admit, I would totally follow a smelly footprint trail if I knew it led straight to a giant potato chip.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

I think we all would. When the other ants smell it with their antennae, they follow the trail exactly. And as more ants walk on it, they add their own scent, making the trail stronger and stronger, so nobody gets lost.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

So they're literally painting a scented road to the food. Nature is so smart.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Exactly! Whether it's a cat purring at 50 Hz to soothe itself, an elephant rumbling the dirt six miles away, a blue whale singing across 1,500 miles of ocean, or an ant leaving a chemical roadmap? Animals are constantly talking. We just have to know how to listen. Alright, Finn, it is time for the quiz. Are you ready to test your animal communication knowledge?

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Okay, I'm ready. I hope I remember all those giant numbers.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

First question. What specific animal sound vibrating between 25 and 150 Hz do cats use to communicate when they are happy, scared, or stressed? Next one. What is the name of the scientist who discovered that elephants communicate using invisible, rumbling infrasound? Question 3. When elephants talk using those deep rumbles, how do the other elephants detect the sound from miles away? Here's number four. How far can a blue whale's deep cool travel across the ocean? Last question. What insect performs a figure eight waggle dance to give its friends GPS directions to food? Great job! Let's see how you did and go through the answers. The first answer is a cat's purr. For question two, the scientist who discovered elephant infrasound is Dr. Katie Payne. Number three, the answer is they feel the vibrations through the ground with their feet. Question four. Blue whale cores can travel up to 1,500 miles underwater. And the final answer is, the dancing insect is the honeybee.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Wow! I actually got a lot of those right. But honestly, I'm still just completely blown away by the theory that a cat purr might be a scientific healing vibration.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

I know, right? Next time you pet a purring cat, you will know you are basically sitting with a tiny, fuzzy superhero.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

And if you guys out there wish you could do a honeybee waggle dance to find the best snacks in your kitchen, please leave us a five-star review. Just scroll down on your podcast app and tap the stars.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Yes, we would love that. Oh, and don't forget to check out our site, kidopoly.com. We have tons of fun learning games and awesome activities waiting for you over there.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Also, if you want to shout out on the show or just want to say hi and tell us your favourite animal fact, send us an email at hello at kidopoly.com.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Thank you all so much for exploring the wild, invisible world of animal communication with us. See you next time on Science Is Not Boring. Bye everyone.