This presentation includes detailed explanation of Animal communication via different examples present in nature. It includes all the different methods animals use to convey information to their species or the other animals in nature.

2. The animal communication system also known as ANICOMS, refers to the methods
and systems animals use to communicate with each other belonging to the same species
or to transmit signals to the animals belong to other species or to humans.
Animal communication is also known as Biological communication.
It is the passage of information b/w two animals.
It is accepted axiomatically that animals use some sort of communication among
themselves which is largely dissimilar to the human system involving language.
ANICOMS is the study of the specific behaviour or behavioural patterns of animals
that relate to inter and intra-specific communication which often leads to better
understanding of associated animal species.

3. Historically, the study of ANICOMS has been known as Zoosemiotics, which, in
recent times, has been accepted as an important area of ethology, sociobiology,
linguistics, and communication science.
The animal which sends is called signaller and the animal that recieves signal is called
reciever.
The classical ethological view of communication was developed by Niko Tinbergen.
Niko Tinbergen

4. BASIC COMPONENTS
• Signaller : An individual which emits signal.
• Receiver : An individual which receives signal
•Signal : The behaviour emitted by the signaller
• Channels : A pathway through which normally a signal travels.
(i.e means of communication)
 Visual
Auditory
Chemical
Tactile
Electrical
Surface vibration

5. TYPES OF COMMUNICATION
Intraspecific communication: communication within a
single species
Ex: Honeybee dance
Interspecific communication
◦ Prey to predator:
Ex: warning colouration in wasps.
◦ Predator to prey: Some predators
communicate to prey make them
easier to catch, in effect deceiving them.
Ex: Angler fish
◦ Human/animal communication:
During domestication of animals

6. •Sending information from one member to another by sound production
is called auditory signal or bioacoustic signal.
•Sound is a good means of communicating over long distances both in
air and water.
•It may have a vocal origin or it may be produced by some other organs
 For eg. Calls of mammals and birds – vocal origin ; sound produced
by crickets is rhythmic oscillation of forewings.
• Sound is more effective signal at night and darkness
•It can go around obstacles that would interfere with visual signals.
•It is better than visual signals in getting attention of a receiver.

7. In a number of species, males perform calls during mating
rituals as a form of competition against other males and to
signal females.
Ex: frogs, hammer-headed bats, red deer, humpback
whales, elephant seals, and songbirds.
Vocal communication include the alarm calls.
Ex: Campbell monkey, the territorial calls of gibbons, and
the use of frequency in greater spear-nosed bats to
distinguish between groups.
The vervet monkey gives a distinct alarm call for each of
its four different predators, and the reactions of other monkeys
vary appropriately according to the call.
Ex: if an alarm call signals a python, the monkeys climb into
the trees, whereas the "eagle" alarm causes monkeys to seek a
hiding place on the ground.
Deathwatch beetle signal to each
other by producing clicking sound
made by tapping their head against
wood.
Deathwatch beetle
vervet monkey
humpback whales

8. Red squirrels will make a series of
loud rattles and screeches to warn off
intruders.
The bottlenose dolphin has a wide
range of vocalizations. Each dolphin
also has its own unique whistling
sound that it uses to identify itself.
Male birds sing a song during breeding
season.
Another means of auditory communication is the
vibration of swim bladders in bony fish. The structure
of swim bladders and the attached sonic muscles varies
greatly across bony fish families, resulting in a wide
variety of sounds
Striking body parts together can also produce auditory
signals.
Ex: the tail tip vibration of rattlesnakes as a warning
signal.
Ex: bill clacking in birds, wing clapping
in manakin, courtship displays, and chest beating
in gorillas.
Bottlenose dolphin
Red squirrels
chest beating gorilla
manakin

10. •Information transmitted by visual means is called visual
communication.
•The visual signals may be given by various means like
movement
 posture or shape of the body
Facial expressions.
 colour identification
light etc.
•Visual signals are used most often by species that are active during day.
•Light as a visual means is used in night.

11. 1. Visual communication in Bees
•The worker bees communicate about food mainly by a dance language.
•It was decoded by Karl von Frisch in 1965.
•Bees mainly perform 2 types of dances.
 Round dance - If source of nectar is less than about 100m
away. Does not communicate the direction.
 Waggle dance – If source of nectar more than 100m away
from hive. Communicates both distance and direction.

12. •Runs around in narrow circles, suddenly
reversing direction to her original course.
•After the round dance has ended, she often
distributes food to the bees following her.
•Essentially says "there is food close by, get out
and find the food, which smells like this.”
•Runs straight ahead for a short distance, returns in a semicircle to the starting point,
runs again through the straight course, then makes a semicircle in the opposite
direction to complete a full, figure-eight circuit.
•While running the straight-line course of the dance,
the bee wags abdomen, vigorously sideways.
•The angle that the bee adopts, relative to vertical
represents the angle in which food is found.

14. 2. Postures
•Some mammal species give specific signals by the position adopted by
head, ears & tail.
Ex: Flattened ear –fear/ suspicion
Wagging of tail –Complete submission.
Retraction of lips to display teeth – threat display.

15. 3. Facial expressions
•Facial gestures play an important role in animal communication.
•Often a facial gesture is a signal of emotion.
Ex: Dogs express anger through snarling and showing their teeth. In
alarm their ears perk up, in fear the ears flatten while the dogs expose
their teeth slightly and squint their eyes.

16. During mating season the male
goldfinch has a bright yellow body.
he gila monster's bright orange
colored splotches are a warning to predators that
it is poisonous and they should back-off.
 When an animal exhibits a behavior
that can be seen by other animals,
it is called a display.
Male fiddler crabs wave their giant
claw to attract female fiddler crabs.
Male peacock exhibits a visual display
as part of its courtship rituals.
4. Colours and Displays
An organism's general coloration rather than a change in color may also act as a visual
signal.

17. 5. Light (Bioluminescence)
•Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by living organism.
•It is a form of chemiluminescence.
•Bioluminescence occurs widely in marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as in
some fungi, microorganisms including some bioluminescent bacteria and terrestrial
arthropod such as fireflies.
•Certain insects and deep sea fishes communicate via their light signals.
•luminuous insects are glow worms and their relatives the fireflies.
•In some animals, the light is bacteriogenic, produced by symbiotic organisms such
as Vibrio bacteria; in others, it is autogenic, produced by the animals themselves.
• Luminescent bacteria exist as symbiotic organisms carried within a larger organism,
such as many deep sea organisms, including the Lantern Fish, the Angler fish,
certain jellyfish, certain clams and the Gulper eel.
Glow worms Fireflies Gulper eel Anglerfishes

18. •Bioluminescence is a form of chemiluminescence where light energy is released by a chemical
reaction. This reaction involves a light-emitting pigment, the luciferin, and a luciferase, the
enzyme component.
•For example, the firefly luciferin/luciferase reaction requires magnesium and ATP and
produces carbon dioxide (CO2), adenosine monophosphate (AMP) and pyrophosphate (PP)
as waste products.
•Other cofactors may be required for the reaction, such as calcium (Ca2+) for the
photoprotein aequorin, or magnesium (Mg2+) ions and ATP for the firefly luciferase.
• Generically, this reaction could be described as:
•PHOTOPHORES are organs that are used by fish (and invertebrates) to produce light either by
chemical reaction or through symbiotic bacteria capable of bioluminescence. Most fish that use
photophores live in the deep sea where light from the surface is limited.
•Ex: Splitfin Flashlight Fish (Anomalops katoptron), use their photophores to communicate
with other flashlight fish, attract prey, and confuse predators.

19. •Communication through chemicals falls in this category.
•Chemical communication is the most primitive type of communication among animals.
•Usually the message causes an immediate response.
•Molecules used for chemical communication between individual animals are called
pheromones.
•They are produced by special ducted glands and are proteinaceous in nature.
•A pheromone is a secreted chemical signal used to trigger a response in another
individual of the same species.
•Pheromones are especially common among social insects (ants and bees) and
mammals.
•Pheromones may attract the opposite sex, raise an alarm, mark a food trail, or trigger
other, more complex behaviors.
•While, Odour signals can transmit informations in dark, can travel long distances, can
last for hours or number of days.

20. Ex: Alarm pheromones are produced in ants in the form of formic
acid to protect themselves from enemies.
•Ants lay down an initial trail of pheromones as they return to the nest
with food. When a food source is rich, ants will deposit pheromone on
both the outgoing and return legs of their trip, building up the trail and
attracting more ants. When the food source is about to run out, the ants
will stop adding pheromone on the way back, letting the trail fade out.
•A squashed ant will also release a burst of pheromones that warns
nearby ants of danger—and may incite them to swarm and sting.
Ex: A female gypsy moth may influence male moths few kilometres
away by producing a pheromone called “disparlure”.

21. Ex: Dogs also communicate using pheromones. They sniff each other to collect
this chemical information, and many of the chemicals are also released in their
urine. By peeing on a bush or post, a dog leaves a mark of its identity that can be
read by other passing dogs and may stake its claim to nearby territory.
•SCENT: Smell is probably the most common basic means of animal
communication with even the most primitive animals reacting to odours given off
by their own or other species.
•Animals use scents to send messages to each other, to proclaim their readiness to
mate, to mark out territorial boundaries, to warn off intruders and predators or, in
some cases, to attract prey.
Ex: Snakes use their tongue to pick
up scent particles in the air.
Ex: Millipedes can release a seriously
smelly and irritating spray to ward off attackers.
Ex: The bombardier beetle bombs an
enemy with stinky smells.

22. •Tactile communication, or touch, is an important form of communication for many
animals.
•Touch is very important in many primate species. Primates are social animals. They
live in large groups. Touch helps the group form bonds and stay peaceful! Primates
often groom each other.
Ex: Female primates often hold and frequently cuddle and comfort their young.
Ex: Sea Otters often rub their faces together and touch noses. The sea otter may even
touch noses with other animals like seals and sea lions!
Ex: Elephants are extremely tactile animals. They purposefully touch one another
using their trunk, ears, tusks, feet, tail, and even their entire body. Tactile interactions
between elephants occur during a broad range of contexts including aggressive,
defensive, affiliative, sexual, playful, care-taking and exploratory behaviour.
Two worker ants in
tactile communication

23. •Electrocommunication is a rare form of communication in animals.
•It is seen primarily in aquatic animals, though some land mammals, notably
the platypus and echidnas, sense electric fields that might be used for communication.
Ex: Weakly electric fishes provide an example of electrocommunication, together
with electrolocation. These fish use an electric organ to generate an electric field, which
is detected by electroreceptors.
Ex: Torpedo( Electric ray)and sharks (Scyliorhinus caniculus) have electro
receptors that they use in communication.
Ex: Sharks detect the electric field produced by prey flatfish that are buried in
the sand by a specialized organ called the ampulla of lorenzini.
Ex: Electric fish communicate information about species identity and sex by
discharging electric field.
Weakly electric fishes Torpedo Scyliorhinus caniculus

24. •Seismic or vibrational communication is a process of conveying information through
mechanical (seismic) vibrations of the substrate. The substrate may be the earth, a plant
stem or leaf, the surface of a body of water, a spider's web, a honeycomb, or any of the
myriad types of soil substrates.
•Vibrational communication is an ancient sensory modality. It has been reported in
mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, arachnids, crustaceans and nematode
worms
Ex: Male jumping spiders go to great lengths to attract females, putting on colourful
and elaborate displays that also include a vibrational component.
Ex: The low-frequency calls of elephants actually travel farther through the ground
than they do through the air for communicating over long distances.
Ex: Water spider send out ripples of certain frequency and receptive female respond
by moving towards the source.
jumping spiders Water spidercalls of elephants

25. Ex: Mole rats are a group of rodents that
live in underground burrows.
Under the ground,there is not much light
for visual signals,and sound doesn’t travel
very far. So several species of mole rats
have developed other ways to communicate
like head-banging.
Ex: Treehoppers are tiny insects that cling to
plant stems and often live in family groups.
They communicate with each other by
vibrating the stem they’re sitting on.
Ex: Male Caribbean white-lipped frogs
sing to attract mates. With each chirp they make,
their vocal sacs expand and contract, hitting the
ground and producing an accompanying vibration.
Ex: Cannibalistic male spiders vibrate threads
of web of his prospective partner
communicating that it is nota prey.

26. Communication during contests: Animal communication plays a vital role in determining
the winner of contest over a resource. Many species have distinct signals that signal aggression
or willingness to attack or signals to convey retreat during competitions over food, territories, or
mates.
Mating rituals: Animals produce signals to attract the attention of a possible mate or to
solidify pair bonds. These signals frequently involve the display of body parts or postures. For
example, a gazelle will assume characteristic poses to initiate mating.
Ownership/territorial: Signals used to claim or defend a territory, food, or a mate.
Food-related signals: Many animals make "food calls" to attract a mate, offspring, or other
members of a social group to a food source. Perhaps the most elaborate food-related signal is
the Waggle dance of honeybees.
Alarm calls: Alarm calls communicate the threat of a predator. This allows all members of a
social group (and sometimes other species) to respond accordingly.
Meta-communication: Signals that will modify the meaning of subsequent signals. One
example is the 'play face' in dogs which signals that a subsequent aggressive signal is part of a
play fight rather than a serious aggressive episode.

27. •Dr. Jayne Yack of Carlton University in Ottawa, found that the walnut
sphinx caterpillar has a special way of communication with its
predators.
•Make a squeaking sound that fends off attacking birds like Warblers .
•Sound is made by blowing air out of two holes found in the
abdominal spiracles.
•It was found that they are mimicking the alarm call of another predatory
bird.
Communication in walnut sphinx caterpillar (Journal of experimental
biology, Jan issue, 2012)

28. •Animals do communicate which involves information transfer
from the sender to a receiver.
•They can convey their needs, desires and reactions to the
environment via some sophisticated signalling of their own.
•No animals have however evolved the sophistication of the human
language - communication system.
•The understanding of animal communication is essential for
understanding the animal world in general.

29. •Prasad S, Animal Behaviour (2004), CBS Publishers and Distributors,
New Delhi
•Harjinder Singh, A textbook of Animal Behaviour (1995), 1st edition,
Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi.
•https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_communication
•Aubrey Manning and Marian Stamp Dawkins, An introduction to
Animal Behaviour, 5th edition, Cambridge university Press.
•www. nhptv.org/natureworks/nwep3.htm
•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MX2WN-7Xzc
•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsQnRnE-W8A&t=60s

30. SEC: A One word
1. The classical ethological view of communication was developed
by_________.
2. The study of Animal communication is also known as ____________.
3. Intraspecific communication is the communication
between__________.
4. Worker bees communicate about food mainly by____________.
5. Give 2 example of electrocommunication in animals____________.
SEC: B 4 MARKS
6. Give brief of auditory communication in animals.
7. Give brief of tactile communication in animals.
8. Explain the chemical mechanism of bioluminiscence.
SEC: C 10 MARKS
9. Explain visual communication in animals by all the different means.
10. Give the importance of animal communication.