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From a leading researcher on dolphin communication, a deep dive into the many ways animal species communicate with their kin, their neighbouring species, and us.
If you could pose one question to a dolphin, what would it be? And what might a dolphin ask you? For forty years, researcher and author Denise L. Herzing has investigated these and related questions of marine mammal communication. With the assistance of a friendly community of Atlantic spotted dolphins in the Bahamas, Herzing studies two-way communication between different dolphin species and between humans and dolphins using a variety of cutting-edge experiments. But the dolphins are not the only ones talking, and in this wide-ranging and accessible book, Herzing explores the astonishing realities of interspecies communication, a skill that humans currently lack.
Is Anyone Listening? connects research on dolphin communication to findings from Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Dian Fossey on mountain gorillas, Cynthia Moss on African elephants, and others driving today's exploration of possible animal languages. Although humans have long attempted to crack animal communication codes, only now do we have the advanced machine-learning tools to help. As Herzing reveals, researchers are finding fascinating hints of language in nonhuman species, including linguistic structures, vowel equivalents, and complex repeated sequences. By looking at the many ways animals use and manipulate signals, we see that we've only just begun to appreciate the diversity of animal intelligence and the complicated and subtle aspects of animal communication.
Considering dolphins and other nonhuman animals as colleagues instead of research subjects, Herzing asks us to meet animals as both speakers and listeners, as mutually curious beings, and to listen to what they are saying.
Preface
1. When Species Meet
2. Lessons from Other Animals
3. Eavesdropping on Dolphins
4. Talking Back
5. Yesterday's Tools
6. Tomorrow's Rosetta Stone
7. Every Species Has Its Ambassador
8. Big Claims Take Big Evidence
Acknowledgments
Species Glossary
Notes
Index
As research director of the Wild Dolphin Project, Denise L. Herzing has completed forty years of a long-term study on the Atlantic spotted dolphins of the Bahamas. She is also an affiliate assistant professor in biology at Florida Atlantic University, coeditor of Dolphin Communication and Cognition, and the author of Dolphin Diaries: My 25 Years with Spotted Dolphins in the Bahamas and The Wild Dolphin Project.
"In this entrancing report, marine biologist Herzing details her work for the Wild Dolphin Project researching how the animals communicate with humans and one another [...] The firsthand accounts of studying dolphins in the wild position Herzing as a kind of aquatic Jane Goodall, and her recollections are elevated by philosophical musings on how scientists should think about the minds of other animals ('We should be looking to develop species-specific definitions for "types" of intelligence, rather than resorting to human comparisons'). Animal lovers will be eager to dive in."
– Publishers Weekly
"Dr. Doolittle famously desired to talk to the animals. Herzing has a better idea: stop talking long enough to listen to what the animals themselves are saying. Herzing has spent more than forty years doing just that, mostly while underwater with free-living dolphins. It might surprise us to learn that animals sometimes lie, and that some animals talk by changing colors. Listen to what Herzing has to say here. You'll be amazed."
– Carl Safina, author of Beyond Words and Alfie & Me
"It's high time someone pulled together our current knowledge of interspecies communication, and no one is better placed to do that than Herzing."
– Arik Kershenbaum, author of Why Animals Talk: The New Science of Animal Communication
"By merging personal stories with scientific depictions, Herzing offers a compelling argument that captivates."
– Con Slobodchikoff, author of Chasing Doctor Dolittle: Learning the Language of Animals
"A detailed, fascinating survey of the ongoing pursuit to understand the linguistic dimensions of nonhuman animals, told through the lens of Herzing's decades of studying a community of dolphins in their native habitat. Particularly interesting is Herzing's chronicle of her imaginative and pioneering use of technology to attempt to understand the many facets of dolphin communication. Required reading for anyone interested in building a bridge between humans and nonhumans."
– Thomas I. White, author of In Defense of Dolphins: The New Moral Frontier
