Animal communication
How tweet it isÉwas considered to have uniquely evolved
in humans, but our study demonstrates
that it has evolved in a wild bird, too. I
think many basic features of language
capacity are shared between humans
and non-human animals, including birds,’
says Suzuki. According to Wheatcroft,
songbirds such as the Japanese tit may
even provide a new model for studying the
evolution of syntax.
Linguist Moira Yip at University
College London welcomes such exciting
new work into animal communication,
but points out that tits’ capabilities are
limited when compared to what humans
can do. ‘They have found a system that
has two “words”, and one combination,
and at the moment that is it,’ she says.
‘We, on the other hand, can combine
any adjective and any noun to make
a new phrase... so from only 10 adjectives
and 10 nouns we can create a hundred
two-word phrases.’
‘In evolutionary terms, birds are
extremely distant relatives of humans,’
she adds. Even so, the way birds learn
their songs does show some parallels with
the way humans acquire language – for
example, the way we use syllables and stress certain sounds
in a rhythmic way. ‘Birdsong has internal structure that is
reminiscent of the way human speech groups sound,’ says Yip.FEELING THE HEAT
Watching zebra finch parents
nesting, behavioural ecologist
Mylene Mariette at Deakin
University in Geelong, Australia,
noticed something interesting.
When the weather was hot, the
birds produced a fast, high-pitched
call around their eggs. ‘To find out
whether there was any effect on
the embryo, we did an incubator
experiment,’ she says. They found
that unborn chicks sung to in
this way were smaller and lighter
when they hatched, which helped
them cope better with the heat.
‘It’s exciting,’ says Mariette. ‘It has
implications for the stage at which
birds start learning sounds.’ Her
team is now looking at how this
remarkable heat song works.To find out more
about the zebra
finch heat call, visit
bbc.in/2bs5OQH