14 DAY TRIAL // According to a new study, it would appear that the prairie dog features the most complex form of language existent on the planet, save from our own. The small rodent may even communicate better than dolphins or whales, which were until now considered to be the epitome of animal language. Northern Arizona University (NAU) animal behaviorist and conservation biologist Con Slobodchikoff, who has been studying the animal for 30 years with his colleagues, was the one who made the announcement, saying that a single bark can tell other rodents the location of an encroached predator, and even supply details such as color.
Native to the semi-desert grassland of northern Arizona, northern New Mexico and southwest Colorado, prairie dogs (Cynomys), are burrowing rodents, divided into five species. The expert says that his work with the animals led him and his team to believe that it has the capacity to condense a vast amount of information within a very short bark, which is a trait that nature may have selected for to avoid predator attacks. This ability may allow a large number of nearby prairie dogs to escape an impending attack, given that they have sufficient warning, and that the information is transmitted very fast, the BBC News reports.
For the past three decades, the barks, squeals and squeaks that the small rodents emit when predators approach have been the targets of investigation for the NAU team, which has been recording them carefully. During experiments meant to assess exactly what differences appear in these warning signals depending on predators, researchers flashed various predators, such as coyotes, hawks and badgers, in front of the Cynomys, and then recorded the fast noises the animals made. They noticed that each type of predator got its own, special alarm code. The differences between the various animals that are approaching the colony are translated into various sequences of rhythmic chirps and frequency modulations, the researchers add.
“Prairie dogs have the most complex natural language that has been decoded so far. They have words for different predators, they have descriptive words for describing the individual features of different predators, so it's a pretty complex language that has a lot of elements,” Prof Slobodchikoff, a respected academic, says. One of the main reasons why the animals may have evolved such advancements could be the fact that they constantly need to be alert, as species including cottontail rabbits, rattlesnakes, tarantulas, burrowing owls, badgers and swift foxes often attempt to colonize their impressive, underground, highly-elaborate burrows.