Post by nimay on Aug 27, 2012 2:29:25 GMT -5
Communication is the way that we convey our thoughts and feelings to another person. The basic form of communication is speech, which is when we directly address someone in person and express a thought, ask a question or direct an order.
Animal communication is any behavior on the part of one animal that has an effect on the current or future behaviour of another animal.Animal communication, and the understanding of the animal world in general, is a rapidly growing field. Even in the 21st century, many prior understandings related to diverse fields such as personal symbolic name use, animal emotions, animal culture and learning, and even sexual conduct, long thought to be well understood, have been revolutionized.
FORMS OF COMMUNICATION
Animals normally communicate to each other with the help of gestures,facial expressions,gaze following,vocalisation,olfactory,bio-luminescense and electrocommunication.
FUNCTIONS OF COMMUNICATION
While there are as many kinds of communication as there are kinds of social behaviour, a number of functions have been studied in particular detail. They include:
1.agonistic interaction: everything to do with contests and aggression between individuals. Many species have distinctive threat displays that are made during competition over food, mates or territory; much bird song functions in this way.
2.Mating rituals: signals made by members of one sex to attract or maintain the attention of potential mate, or to cement a pair bond. These frequently involve the display of body parts, body postures (gazelles assume characteristic poses as a signal to initiate mating), or the emission of scents or calls, that are unique to the species, thus allowing the individuals to avoid mating with members of another species which would be infertile.
3.ownership/territorial: signals used to claim or defend a territory, food, or a mate.
4.Food-related signals: many animals make "food calls" that attract a mate, or offspring, or members of a social group generally to a food source. When parents are feeding offspring, the offspring often have begging responses (particularly when there are many offspring in a clutch or litter - this is well known in altricial songbirds, for example).
5.Alarm calls: signals made in the presence of a threat from a predator, allowing all members of a social group (and often members of other species) to run for cover, become immobile, or gather into a group to reduce the risk of attack.
6.Meta-communications: signals that modify the meaning of subsequent signals. The best known example is the play face in dogs,[citation needed] which signals that a subsequent aggressive signal is part of a play fight rather than a serious aggressive episode.