Birds speak like humans, new study reveals.
A recent study indicates that babbler birds speak like humans, scientists have revealed after carefully studying the behavior of Australian birds. The latter are known to emit special sound strings that can take different meanings depending on their voice modulations.
Birds are very popular for the numerous sounds they make and yet very few scientists have actually taken the time to study whether their sounds contain coded messages or not. A group of researchers from the University of Exter and the University of Zurich were the first to publish a similar study saying that babbler birds speak like humans.
For the current experiment, they have observed the activity of a small group of Australian birds. They have chosen this particular type of winged beings because unlike other birds, they do not sing, but rather make special sounds.
The first days of observation led scientists to conclude that there are certain sounds that the chestnut-colored birds repeat on given time intervals. Analyses have shown that these sounds become more intense when another feathered creature flies nearby or during feeding time.
To better pinpoint the link between these vibrations and the aforementioned activities, investigators have assigned sounds to two different categories, A and B. By studying their repeated strings, analysts have concluded that AB is usually emitted during flights, whereas the BAB model is used during feeding.
The conclusion of the study was reached after scientists have noticed that Australian birds raise their heads and look towards the nest every time the BAB pattern is expressed. The AB string, on the other hand, made birds look towards the sky every time they heard it.
The voice modulations of the birds further indicates that the chicks can also understand different meanings. The same patterns might take different meanings, depending on the manner in which they utter sounds.
Investigators pertaining to this group study have been particularly pleased with the results they have obtained during the recent experiment. They were glad to have finally proved that birds use a system of communication that is very similar to the ones of humans.
Animals’ capacity of generating and understanding messages through sounds has long been discussed, especially in relation to dogs and dolphins. The new findings about birds’ communication system, which were published in the journal PLOS Biology, contribute to the widening of scientific horizons.
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