There have always been many similarities between the animal world and the human world. However, speech has been considered a unique trait humans have. This is mainly because humans possess the necessary cognitive functions to process how language really works.
In spite of that, a team of researchers from The University of Zurich, in collaboration with experts from The University of Exeter have discovered that there are some birds out there that are able to tweet in a way that they are able to convey a message similar to that a human being could communicate. One of these is the Chestnut-crowned blabber from Australia.
The experts found that these birds can communicate with one another by combining different sounds to pass various messages.
These findings are particularly relevant because they can help scientists discover how humans started to develop their speech abilities.
According to the authors of the study, this is the first time such a level of communication has been recorded in the animal world.
The researchers identified two different sounds the blabbers used to communicate various things. They mixed and associated these two sounds to let their fellows know where they were or that they were feeding their baby birds.
Dr. Simon Towsend, one of the lead authors from the University of Zurich said that even if these birds tweet similarly, there is variety in terms of their inflections, which resembles humans even more.
According to the other author of the study, Dr. Andy Russell from the University of Exeter, it is almost certain that the blabber birds’ capacity to communicate is not the only example in the human world:
“It is the first evidence outside of a human that an animal can use the same meaningless sounds in different arrangements to generate new meaning. It’s a very basic form of word generation — I’d be amazed if other animals can’t do this, too,” he said.
Even if further research needs to be carried out to determine how the birds distinguish between various sounds and how they perceive them, this discovery is very important for the scientific world.
The results of the research were published in the latest issue of the journal PLOS Biology.
Image Source: firspost
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