Answer Key Ways Animals Communicate
1. Choose two animals and describe a scenario when you might hear the sound.
Answer: Answers will vary. An example of a good student answer is, “I would expect to hear the howl of a wolf while approaching a deserted house next to a graveyard at night. I might hear the buzz of bees next to a beehive on a neighbor’s farm.”
2. Identify whether the following examples are visual, auditory, tactile, or chemical methods of communication: 1) ants following the same path to carry food from a picnic basket back to their colony 2) a peacock proudly displaying its feathers 3) the chirp of a cricket 4) shaking hands with someone you just met
Answer: 1) chemical (olfactory), 2) visual, 3) auditory, 4) tactile.
3. Imagine you own a cat and return from a vacation to find your cat annoyed and upset that you were gone. How would you expect your cat to behave when it sees you? How might it express itself through body language?
Answer: The cat would probably be neither fearful nor aggressive. Therefore, its ears would likely be straight up and turned forward. It would probably walk with straight posture and its tail might be pointed upward in a derisive stance.
4. How would knowledge of the courtship dance of the bird of paradise encourage conservation and the preservation of biodiversity?
Answer: Videos such as the dance of the bird of paradise provide us with an appreciation of the elaborate rituals developed by individual species. The dance is aesthetically impressive, awe inspiring, and humorous, providing us with the desire to preserve this unique species by protecting the environment in which it lives.
5. Do you think the sound of a frog pond in a city park would differ from that in a quiet rural setting?
Answer: The frogs would have to adjust their pitch and volume to compete with external noises, such as city traffic or running streams. A group of frogs develops its own unique chorus. It has been shown that populations of frogs separated, for example, by a road will have different sounds.
6. What type of dance would you expect a bee to perform if it returns to the hive in the morning to recruit other workers to a field of clover 50 yards to the west of the hive?
Answer: The bee would perform a waggle dance since the field is over 35 yards from the hive. It would dance straight down because the direction of the field is west, opposite the sun, which rises in the east during the morning hours. The dance would be relatively slow, or the buzz short, because the field is not too far away.
7. Can you come up with a hypothesis as to why the honeybees are disappearing?
Answer: Answers will vary. Examples include,“It might be a result of changing climate” or “Perhaps the bees have to travel longer distances to find nectar.”
8. Humans can change their color easily by changing their clothes. Give an example of an outfit you might wear in order to communicate something.
Answer: Answers will vary. An example would be: “I would wear a reflective vest if I were riding my bike home at night and wanted to communicate to other vehicles that I was on the road.”
9. Choose a marine mammal and listen to the sound. Give an example of what that sound might represent if you heard it at home or at school.
Answer: Answers will vary. An example would be: “I listened to the sound of the common dolphin. I could imagine hearing this sound when watering the garden with a sprinkler hose that had a small hole in it, resulting in occasional whistling noises as air escapes.”
10. Why would studying animals’ sounds with computers provide important additional information for studying animal communication?
Answer: Studying animal sounds using only our human sense of hearing often results in bias. As we learned from the last page, our ears can often misinterpret sounds. For example, we might think we hear a dog barking when it is really a California sea lion. Digital signal processing allows the scientific research to remain objective.
11. Why would chemical communication be more useful than other methods for ant foraging?
Answer: Pheromones would most likely last longer than other methods. Ants may not be intelligent enough to use visible markers, which winds might easily blow away. Tactile communication could only be used by adjacent ants and would not allow for gaps in the line. Auditory communication is short-lived and would only be heard by ants close by.
12. How do you think separating a baby primate from its mother affects the research on primate communication?
Answer: Answers will vary. A complete answer would resemble the following: “The baby probably is more likely to keep trying to achieve the right answer in order to gain approval from the human researcher. Without the care of its mother, it would depend on positive reinforcement from its trainer. Consequently, the baby might feign understanding in order to achieve acceptance.”
13. Do you believe it is ethical to use primates as subjects for communications research?
Answer: Answers will vary. A complete answer would resemble the following: “I believe it is ethical as long as the animals are treated humanely and allowed to remain as much as possible within their natural social network.”
14. Use words that you know Koko can sign to create a new sentence.
Answer: Answers will vary. One example would be: “Koko love chase cat.”
15. Considering the words that Koko knows and uses, do you think that Koko has the ability to express feelings and emotions? Why?
Answer: Students can agree or disagree, and must provide an explanation. An example of the affirmative would be: “Yes, I believe she has the ability to express feelings and emotions because she knows words such as “love,” “good,” and “like.”
16. How does the robot expand the ability of the cockroach to communicate with its surroundings?
Answer: The cockroach moves as if it were much larger in scale. The robot senses barriers on a larger scale. For example, it senses the presence of a wall or a person. Lights brighten when the robot senses a barrier so that the cockroach stops and retreats, a natural response of the insect to bright light.
 

Study Questions Ways Animals Communicate
1. Choose two animals and describe a scenario when you might hear the sound.



2. Identify whether the following examples are visual, auditory, tactile, or chemical methods of communication: 1) ants following the same path to carry food from a picnic basket back to their colony 2) a peacock proudly displaying its feathers 3) the chirp of a cricket 4) shaking hands with someone you just met



3. Imagine you own a cat and return from a vacation to find your cat annoyed and upset that you were gone. How would you expect your cat to behave when it sees you? How might it express itself through body language?



4. How would knowledge of the courtship dance of the bird of paradise encourage conservation and the preservation of biodiversity?



5. Do you think the sound of a frog pond in a city park would differ from that in a quiet rural setting?



6. What type of dance would you expect a bee to perform if it returns to the hive in the morning to recruit other workers to a field of clover 50 yards to the west of the hive?



7. Can you come up with a hypothesis as to why the honeybees are disappearing?



8. Humans can change their color easily by changing their clothes. Give an example of an outfit you might wear in order to communicate something.



9. Choose a marine mammal and listen to the sound. Give an example of what that sound might represent if you heard it at home or at school.



10. Why would studying animals’ sounds with computers provide important additional information for studying animal communication?



11. Why would chemical communication be more useful than other methods for ant foraging?



12. How do you think separating a baby primate from its mother affects the research on primate communication?



13. Do you believe it is ethical to use primates as subjects for communications research?



14. Use words that you know Koko can sign to create a new sentence.



15. Considering the words that Koko knows and uses, do you think that Koko has the ability to express feelings and emotions? Why?



16. How does the robot expand the ability of the cockroach to communicate with its surroundings?



 

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