Animal communication

Communication: the imparting or exchanging of information

Used between members of the same species…

….or between members of different species.

• Visual • Acoustic• Chemical• Physical• Combination of above

How?

Animal communication

Why?• Recognition • Courtship• Learning• Danger• Territoriality• Defence

Antarctic fur seal Great bustard

How and why animals communicate

Recognition

Hooker’s sea lion Emperor penguin African elephant

Territoriality

(aggression and threat)

How and why animals communicate

Red deer Lion

How and why animals communicate

Courtship and mate selection

Humpback whale

Pine barrens tree frog

Superb bird of paradise

Magnificent frigatebird

Signalling danger

How and why animals communicate

MeerkatPronghorn

Signalling danger

How and why animals communicate

Death’s head hawkmoth Zimmermann’s poison frog

Marañón poison frog Dyeing poison frog

- Subordinate grooms dominant member of the group

Allogrooming

How and why animals communicate

Olive baboon

Chimpanzee - tool use

Learning

Asian dwarf honey bee – waggle dance

How and why animals communicate

Activity – Narration!

• Divide into small groups

• Each group will be allocated a 1-2 minute video of a species communicating

• Research the species on ARKive (www.arkive.org)

• Using your research, write a script for a narration of your video

• Perform it in front of the class

Things to avoid

Don’t…

Use too much information – this will make it too complicated

Use statistics unless they are really needed

Talk about things not in the video clip

Things to remember

Do…

Keep it simple

Use the present tense and an active mood

Make it fun and interesting!

Don’t be afraid to let the pictures speak for themselves!