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How to Speak Whale is not a primer on whale speech. How can we collect and decode the majority of sounds that any given species makes? How can we understand the way non-human animals perceive the world? How can we see past our cornucopia of human biases to know what is important to an animal from another species? How can we listen to and make their sounds in a way that engenders trust and dialogue? Fortunately for him, many researchers are pursuing some of the very questions that his traumatic encounter with a humpback imprinted on his psyche.

“Big data meets big beasts,” Mustill has quipped about the methods currently being used to decipher whale speech and animal speech in general. Their hope is that, one day, humans may be able to “speak whale.” According to Mustill, scientists are using traditional research methods like tagging as well as more recent technologies including underwater robots, cameras, and microphones to collect and analyze enormous data sets. Most of the book’s focus, however, is on whales and whale song. They examine communication among dolphins, porpoises, prairie dogs, horses, fish, chickens, chimps, baboons, parrots, and bowerbirds. Like many a good documentary film, the book tells intriguing stories about a handful of researchers asking questions and looking judiciously for answers.

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Knowing full well that any fulsome conversation with Prime Suspect (as the sleuths had dubbed it) was far beyond the realm of possibility, Mustill became curious about how and when humans and whales might ever come to genuinely communicate thoughts, emotions, intentions, and ideas.Īnd so he began writing a book that looks carefully and respectfully at the science of animal-human communication. Amateur whale sleuths had already identified it by using huge, web-based photo databases and a computer algorithm. The lack of resolution left Mustill wishing that he could just ask the whale. At least one suggested that the whale had aggressively attacked the kayak.

Meanwhile, not all whale experts with whom Mustill consulted agreed with Professor Reidenberg’s point of view. Now, note that I’ve already flagged Mustill as someone who is very careful not to anthropomorphize about animals. Tina Turner may have had bowerbirds in mind when she sang, “What’s Love Got To Do With It?”Īstonishing. If you want to anthropomorphize about bower-building, think “he’s constructing a screw shack,” not “he’s building a honeymoon house and filling it with jewels that will be hers forever.” The female doesn’t get to keep the bling. Post mating, as soon as the female has flown away, the male can mate again and again.

Females must build their own nests and raise their young alone. They build bowers to attract females willing to mate and then leave. They are also, however, famously promiscuous. As part of this wither-goest-my-heart-so-goest-my-explanations approach, she “enlightened” her dear readers about male bowerbirds, who, she said, build elaborate bowers and decorate them with bling “for love.” To be clear, as a rule, male bowerbirds do build elaborate bowers and do go to great lengths to decorate them. Having assured readers that the times they are a-changin’, the author of this pop-sci book proceeded to ascribe human motivations and emotions willy-nilly to observed animal behavior. However, the author also said that now many “leading scientists” consider anthropomorphizing a perfectly fine thing to do. This month, I read one in which the author explained to readers that scientists have long followed a general rule of trying not to assign human motivations and emotions to observed animal behavior. I read a lot of pop-sci books about animal communication and behavior.

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