Category Self Image & Branding

Pheromones are chemicals released by living organisms to send messages to individuals of the same species. Pheromones play an important role in ensuring the reproduction of a species. They also serve to warn other members of the species of danger, to mark out territory, and to indicate food  When an ant is disturbed, it releases a pheromone that can be detected by other ants several centimetres away, causing them to run about as they work to remedy the Certain ants, as they return to the nest with food, lay down a trail of pheromone. This trail attracts and guides other ants to the   Some pheromones are deposited with the urine or faeces of an animal to mark its territory and warn away intruders. This is why you see dogs urinating on lamp posts!

Most of the time, animals communicate with their own species. This is especially true of mating signals, since animals must be able to communicate with their own species to mate and reproduce. A male elephant seal, for example, will give a loud roar that tells female seals where to come ashore for breeding. Communication within the species is also important in the case of caring for the young. A mother gull must be able to recognize the calls of her own chicks so that she can find them in a thickly populated gull colony, and feed them.But communication also takes place between different species. This is especially true of species living in the same area. Recognizing the warnings given by another species can be very helpful in avoiding danger. In Africa, grazing animals pay close attention to the keen eared zebra. If a zebra suddenly starts running, the other animals know that an enemy is approaching, and will flee too.

Animals communicate with one another in different ways. The sounds made by an animal, its behaviour and the way it looks at another animal are three   important means of Taste and odour, electrical impulse and touch are also used to attract or drive away another animal. Sometimes an animal uses a combination of different mediums to get its messages across most effectively.

Smell is probably the most common basic means of animal communication. Even the most primitive animals react to odours given off by their own, or other species.Animals may use scents, to mark out territorial boundaries, to attract mates, to warn off intruders and predators or, in some cases, to attract prey. Animals of all kinds rely to a great extent on their hearing ability in order to succeed and survive, and this is called acoustic communication. Among mammals, generally speaking, small animals squeak, and large ones rumble. The acoustic communication signal most frequently heard by humans is, of course, bird song. The largest of all animals, the whales, appear to be experts in the art of communication by sound, with each whale of the same species having its own favourite ‘songs’ which it repeats at intervals.Visual signals may take the form of gestures and displays, facial grimaces, body posture or mimicry. Each species has its own way of using its facial expressions, body language, gestures and body markings to communicate effectively.At another level, animals may communicate a simple message through the art of mimicry. The markings on the wings of the peacock butterfly look like large eyes to frighten off its enemies. The same is true of the harmless hoverfly that resembles the wasp.

When a monkey makes faces at you, do you know that it is trying to communicate with you? Visual communication may take the form of facial grimaces, gestures, body language, displays, and even markings on the  A peacock’s extravagant display of feathers is a form of visual communication. The male rabbit will use the white underside of its tail to attract the attention of a female, while the female may use the white of her tail as a visual signal for her young to follow when she is leading them to the safety of the burrow.Dogs and wolves make use of body language, as do cats, monkeys and many other animals. The attitude of the tail when two wolves meet will indicate which of the two the superior is. Horses will hold their ears or tail in certain positions to signal pleasure or alarm. 

 It is true that animals cannot talk like we do, but they do make noises that other animals can understand, even if we can’t!Birds do this when they chirp and sing cats when they meow and purr, and dolphins when they click and whistle. Many of these noises translate to simple phrases like ‘I’m hungry’, ‘I’m angry’, ‘feed me’ and ‘leave me alone’.Other animals use signals and sign language to talk to each other. Bees do a complicated dance to tell other bees in which direction to go to find food. Howler monkeys will howl to tell other monkeys to keep off their territory, and some birds sing both to attract mates and defend their Will we ever be able to understand what animals are saying? Maybe, one day. It’s possible that, in the future, we’ll have computers so powerful that they’ll be able to decode the dolphin clicks even to translate Cuttlefish into English!