An international team of researchers have uncovered a previously undetected structure in the birdsong of Bengalese Finches that has the same statistical patterns found in human languages. The songbirds – famous for their complex, learned songs – organise their songs using the same mathematical formula found in human speech – a trait that has developed over time which makes complex communication easier to learn and pass from one generation to the next.
  • FiniteBanjo@feddit.onlineEnglish
    4·
    19 days ago

    Reminds me of the study where a researcher lived in a house specially built for human dolphin cohabitation for two years to conclude there were no signs of the dolphin attempting to learn or teach language skills, implying it has none.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Howe_Lovatt

    At least crows have been decent enough to teach us their word for treats. Whether we want to know or not.

    • Zachariah@lemmy.world
      4·
      19 days ago

      Was it that one?

      Yes it was:

      Peter, being an adolescent dolphin, frequently had sexual urges which disrupted his lessons, and taking Peter to a downstairs pool with two female dolphins proved to be a logistical issue for Lovatt. Eventually, Lovatt relieved Peter’s urges herself, stating “It wasn’t sexual on my part. Sensuous perhaps. It seemed to me that it made the bond closer. Not because of the sexual activity, but because of the lack of having to keep breaking. And that’s really all it was. I was there to get to know Peter. That was part of Peter … It would just become part of what was going on, like an itch, just get rid of that scratch and we would be done and move on.”