HUGE NEWS !!!
We’ve Decoded Prairie Dog Language!
Check out the video here.
Prairie dogs can say things as complex as: “Tall, thin, human wearing a blue shirt walking slowly across our colony.”
Dr. Con Slobidchikoff has shown that prairie dogs have words for different, specific threats, including distinct terms for coyote, dog, human, badger, and red-tailed hawk. The prairie dogs then react to these words by using different escape behaviours in response to the different predator names.
Their language includes components we use - nouns, adjectives and dialects. They can also communicate about abstract ideas, like things that are not actually present, and they can describe abstract shapes, like circles and triangles. They also have the ability to construct new words referring to novel objects or animals in their environment - prior to this study, only humans were recognized to have this ability.
If this has moved you, consider giving a helping hand to the Prairie Dog Coalition, and definitely check out Dr. Con!www.anthropomorphia.com
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