Can some species of animal genuinely understand human language?
448373
Much to the dissmay of Noam Chomsky, it appears that differnent non-human animals do have varying degrees of linguistical comprehension ability.\n\nChimps and Gorillas can be taught the ability to use sign language to some degree and they demonstrate the ability to understand spoken language. \n\nMany mammals can understand certain phrases and/or words, some relying more heavily on tones than others. Parrots of course can speak more clearly than any non-human animal and African Grey's have demonstrated actual understanding of some of the words spoken to them by picking out objects asked of them, such as a toy car, and even identifying the color. \n\nResearch has even shown that even the lowly rat can distinguish the difference between the sound patterns of different human languages. Of course it's unlikely they are able to understand any words to any degree but it does underscore the importance of communication and the fact that social animals are biologically hard wired for it.
469454
Very little is unique to humans.  Most of what we consider "unique" is only something we do more of than other animals.\n\nFor instance, we're the smartest animals, but hardly the only smart ones.  Our brains are large, but the brains of many whales are larger.  Opposable thumbs are found in the other great apes at least.  Speech of a sort may be found in other animals, we can't really rule it out.\n\nSome of the answers received thus far are wrong.\n\nChimpanzees feel shame and blush.\n\nIt's not clear that other animals don't have philosophy or religion (how exactly would you tell?)\n\nOther animals seem self aware, or at least recognize that what they see in the mirror is "them".\n\nEmpathy is recorded from primates.\n\nChimpanzees have morals in as much as there are behaviors frowned upon socially amongst them.\n\nAnd as for bipedal, all birds, kangaroo, and kangaroo mice are bipedal.\n\nI sometimes suspect the only unique thing about humans is the arrogance to think we're unique.  :-)
850015
Yes, they are. At least as intelligent as dogs. I had a pet pig when I was a child and she was very smart. I have seen reports of pigs that have been trained to really impressive things- like play piano, but who is to say that trainability equals intelligence. As far as possessing the ability to sense when they are about to be slaughtered- I am not sure about that one. But I can't imagine that when one of them sees a big goony redneck standing over them with a shotgun that they aren't at least concerned.
39
It's clear that humans and animals (especially those close to us in the evolutionary tree), share similar chemical responses in their brain when faced with highly emotional situations.  Whether it be fear, contentment, mating urges, we have a lot of analogous mechanisms going on.  On this basis alone, there is a pretty strong argument that animals have feelings.\nOne possible counter-argument, however, is based on the definition that for certain chemical responses to be called feelings, that the being in question needs to have a conscious awareness of their state.  With this defition, it becomes much harder to say whether animals experience feelings in the same conscious manner even though the neurochemical signatures are similar.\nMy opinion is that this definition based on conscious understanding is a little specious, as it's based on an ongoing desire by some to try to define humans out of the context of the natural world... and to claim that we are categorically better than the other animals.  \nIf the neurochemical basis for consciousness is ever discovered we'll be able to quickly check which animals have this, and I suspect we'll find that many are conscious.  If this is so, then their feelings will be as real as human ones in all senses.
1025681
The other answerers were right, bottlenose dolphins are also able to recognize themselves in mirrors.  The study was published in 2001 in PNAS.  As in the classic experiments on chimpanzees done by Gallup, here also animals were marked with a temporary mark on their body.  Their behavior was consistent with that displayed by chimps and other great apes (or yourself when you discover a weird spot of color on your forehead... that is, except for the swearing you may display).  It is an interesting example of evolutionary convergence with great apes and humans.
447895
No; but they are pretty smart. They're able to grasp some abstract mathematical concepts like addition and subtraction, and even occasionally multiplication - things that our own civilization didn't grasp for quite a while. They can respond quite effectively to stimuli. (Dolphins are also extremely smart.) Of course, they have animal mentalities, and the fact that we are able to categorize and think about them, while they are not able to do the same of us, puts us in a higher school of thought.
1153978
Great question, Sassy!  ( And, I'd just like to add that You're a Gorgeous Woman! Wooow!!! )\n\nYou "would" think that apes & gorillas could reproduce simple voice words...but, they cannot.  However, they do understand human words & visual symbols...They certainly understand the meaning of various vocal sounds between one another...Maybe the missing 2 chromosomes are essential for speech? )\n\nBirds that "talk" are just imitating/mimicking phrases that are repeated to them over-and-over again.
1081078
It's a good question, and of course the answer is not exactly a simple one.  The 'why' of scientific experiments can be rather complex, but let me try to give you some hopefully clarifying information.  \n\nThe problem of hominization, that is, how our species Homo sapiens became what it is, does not end with the evolutionary reconstruction of our ancestor species.  It also involves such difficult to answer notions as 'mind,' 'intelligence,' 'self-consciousness,' or 'person'.  All are terms we all use freely but we have a very hard time to explain.  If I tell you about how I felt yesterday when I saw Brasil win its opener game at the World Cup, you can relate and grasp what I mean, but it would be quite difficult to say how this experience differs from when a chimp feels when faced with a stronger attacking male.  In otehr words, what does it mean when we say 'feel'?  Many of the categories we take for granted for our species are difficult to fully understand and grasp scientifically.\n\nLanguage seems to be a major characteristic of our species, which in and of itself is reason enough to study it well.  About 40,000 years ago, our species (H. sapiens) began to spread widely across the planet, while numbers of another hominid species, the Neanderthals (H. neanderthalensis) decreased rapidly.  Eventually, Neanderthals became extinct, and it has been hypothesized that one of the reasons they did was that they did not have the ability for complex speech.  Why would language matter?\n\nIn language we can express certain complicated complex and evolution can assume another degree of complexity.  We can convey information that then can be learned by others who did not have the same experience as ourselves.  Language allows for culture to evolve - or so it seems.\n\nRecent research has actually shown that culture can evolve with very 'simple' means of communication.  certain information can actually be taught by individuals even in species without semantically complex languag like ours.  For example, some decades ago Japenes primatologists began studying Macaque monkeys on Koshima Island and fed animals potatoes.  A little Macaque girl washed the sand of its potatoes and got the extra benefit of having them now salty from the sea water.  Her mother learned her daughter's behavior and soon potato washing had spread theoughout the colony.  Now, some generations later, all the Macaques of the Island wash their potatoes.  Culture is therefore possible not only in human beings.\n\nStudying communication in Macaques here showed us something about how complex social societies and their culture may evolve.  We learned about simple ways of passing on knowledge from one to the next generation.  But what more is there to learn from great apes or dolphins?\n\nBoth species are particularly interesting for modern communication research.  Aside from learning more about the basic function of language and communication, we can learn something about how our mind may work and how language plays a role in grasping reality.  Studies on chimpanzees and bottlenose dolphins have shown that these animals are able to recognize their own mirror reflection.This suggests a certain cognitive evoltuion that is mostly absent from other animals.  For example, our Macaques from Japan would attack their own mirror image, unaware that the individual they are seeing is themselves.  Studies on communication in chimpanzees and bottlenose dolphins have shown that animals indeed convey rather complex messages.  These can not only involve such simple informations as "Hi, here I am!" but also very complex behaviors such as reconciliation after fights.  Chimpanzees have been observed to show reconciliatory behavior after conflicts that serve to restore the community and allow for the social structure within the group to function.  What these studies taught us is that indeed aggression, which we long cons
909685
Giraffes make a very limited number of sounds that are audible to the human ear (grunts, snorts, etc.).  The majority of their vocalizations, however, are produced at frequencies that are imperceptible to us (infrasound). \n\nResearch suggests that their vocalizations may be designed to be a covert form of communication.  \n\nOther animals have been observed to communicate via infrasound and include okapi, elephants, whales, and rhinoceros.
486896
This depends on the animal, a number of different types of animals can hear much better than we can.  However there are some animals like turtles and snakes that can only hear very low frequency sounds.  In spite of what many people think neither turtles or snakes are actually deaf.  Some of this has to do with the anatomy of the ear.  Mammals have 3 ear bones; the stapes, the malleus and the incus.  While fish only have a stapes.  This was the result of evolution so that animals could develop better hearing for a number of different reasons such as 1) better hearing required on land as sound travels better through water than land and 2) the development of a means of communication between one another.  These are the only 2 i can think of off hand but there is a lot of interesting information about the evolution hearing in animals out there.
501648
Superior huh? First of all cats don't have a "language" per se. Everything is based on body language and tones. Humans can also do this. Humans can communicate just like cats (albeit on the most fundamental level) with any other human in the world. Don't believe me? Go to any person who doesn't speak your language. Watch their body language. I guarantee you will be able to understand exactly when they feel scared, happy, surprised, mellow, nervous, etc. And if you just listen to the tone of their voice as they speak to someone else, you will be able to tell when they sound angry, happy, depressed, etc. See, cats and humans can communicate on the same level. Though we can't carry on conversations, neither can cats, we can understand some basics. For example if two cats meet up from differnt parts of the world, they will only be able to understand the most basic things from each other, just like they would understand from their own kind in their own country. Example of things they could tell; I'm in the mood for sex, This is my territory get out, I'm hurt, I'm happy. All of these things can also be communicated by humans to any other human.\n\nhope this helps.
1181090
You are so funny!!!  I'll just bet they do.  Animals are smarter than their human counterparts.
847239
No.\n\nFish can see in five colours. We can only see in three (although some women can see in four). Humans have a blind spot caused by the wiring of their retinas; octopuses do not. The resolution of human vision is not as good as that of hawks. A hawk's vision is about 20/5; they can see an object from about four times the distance of a human with 20/20 vision.\n\nAnd that's just the eyes.\n\nOur skin is not as thick and tough as a rhinoceros', so provides us no protection. It has no fur to keep us warm. We are not the fastest organisms. We are not the only organisms that know how to use tools (see Caledonian crows, some apes and beavers).\n\nAs far as evolution is concerned, if it survives, it's superior. If it doesn't survive, it's inferior. By that standard, all animals are superior, and by inference, all plants.
1118596
Yep, most animals have vocalisations that differ between males and females.\n\nThat may be harder to pick for animals that we have bred to be highly variable like dogs, but even there within a specific breed it is usually possible to differentiate the males and females by their bark.\n\nBut certainly it is easy to differentiate roosters from hens, bulls from cows or stallions from mares based upon just the sound alone.\n\nBy the time we get to animals like frogs or cicadas it becomes extremely easy to do because only the males make any sound. The females are mute.
1054676
No, not the way animals do. Animals can actually smell fear with their noses, it has an actual scent to them. But humans can sense fear, not smell it, but they have intuition and feelings, perceptions of body language, tone, reason, common sense, that let a person just know when someone is afraid.
85183
depends on who you ask. Most people will say some kind of primate, but I believe the answer isd actually dolphins. Though science can't bring itself to believe it, I believe dolphins have a few things on all the others. I believe they are capable of language. Not just signs, but language, with grammar and everything else that it implies, including some level of abstract thought (they understandt he totally arbitrary - and relative - concept of left or right). They have names, and I believe talk to each other. They understand the pointing gesture. Other animals will look at your hand if you point, but dolphins will look at where you're pointing to. They point themselves, with their echolocation beams. Finally, studies have indicated that when they see a tv screen, they understand that what they're looking at is not a light show but a representation of reality, and they can interpret the reality that is being represented.\nI didn't dig up any sources for you (no time now), but if anybody is interested in them, just send me an email (my addy is gwenwifar@yahoo.com suprisingly enough), and I'll be glad to provide some sources.
1133419
I believe that the animal language is less of a vocal one and more of a visual one... The tone of a dogs bark normally doesn't change nor how it changes pitch...\n\nNow if you are talking about a dolfine or a larger animal that does have a speach pattern that changes.. The probly so.