• Question: Why is it that nearly every species of animals communicate in a different way so that no other species can understand what they are saying?

    Asked by maddiec to Christina, Jess on 28 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Christina Pagel

      Christina Pagel answered on 28 Jun 2013:

      Well i suppose we’d need to ask what benefit it would be for animals of differnet species to communicate? they can’t reproduce and there’s no reason why they should help each other’s young to survive (two of the main things animals care about!)…

      but in basic ways, animals of different species *can* communicate – they can display aggression, submission or fear in ways that other animals can interpret (e.g. dog/cat) and animals also respond to different animal’s warning calls (so a meerkat might respond to herd animals running from a predator but also running away)…

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