Parrots, hyenas, dolphins or larks. These animals are very popular for the sounds they make. For people, communication is the foundation of our relationships and part of how we function in our daily lives. Animals make sounds to issue warnings, attract mates, find their groups, and defend their territory. Like us, your vocal cords serve a number of purposes that lay your social foundations and ensure your survival. But have you ever wondered which species is the most vocal?
Like us, your vocal cords serve a number of purposes that lay your social foundations and ensure your survival. But have you ever wondered, of all the species with which we share our planet, which one vocalizes the most?
Thus, we could measure the level of ‘talk’ in two ways: the amount of time animals spend vocalizing and the variety of sounds they make. In this way, researchers have been able to identify some species that vocalize a lot and common tendencies in those that are less talkative.
Previous studies
There is evidence that some animal calls have specific meanings that could be thought of as words. For example, some monkeys make specific alarm calls that signify an imminent threat, and dolphins have different whistles to communicate with their relatives. That is, they use that particular sound as a name, which could be considered a word.
But these expressions take place only in settings where a single sound is the most efficient way of communicating a specific thing. Therefore, animal communication is not composed of words with unique meanings, as is the case with human beings.
Talking animals
According to this study, especially talkative animals have a system that minimizes the energy costs associated with constantly making sounds.
The muscles of the larynx, also known as the larynx, of vocal animals absorb some of the largest amounts of energy in the body, and their activities require rapidly firing neurons to control vocalizations. In other words, species that vocalize a lot use practically no energy.
What is the most talkative?
According to Erich Jarvis, a neurobiologist at Rockefeller University (New York), animals can be divided into two large groups: non-vocal learners and vocal learners. That is, those animals that learn to vocalize by imitating sounds.
Thus, according to Livescience , only a small group of animals enter the field of vocal learning: human beings, some songbirds and various mammals, such as dolphins, whales or elephants.
But what is the most talkative animal? As the researcher maintains, dolphins take the crown. “If you are ever in the water with the dolphins there is hardly ever silence, it is always vocalizing,” explained Arik Kershenbaum, a zoologist at the University of Cambridge in the UK.
Now scientists spend part of their research studying what animals can teach us about human language. Therefore, they have identified certain genetic mutations in songbirds that could shed light on how speech disorders occur in people.
Emma Bryce. (2021). What is the chattiest animal? Live Science .
