- ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) --
Prairie dogs, those little pups popping in and out of holes on vacant lots
and rural rangeland, are talking up a storm.
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- They have different "words" for tall human
in yellow shirt, short human in green shirt, coyote, deer, red-tailed hawk
and many other creatures.
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- They can even coin new terms for things they've never
seen before, independently coming up with the same calls or words, according
to Con Slobodchikoff, a Northern Arizona University biology professor and
prairie dog linguist.
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- Prairie dogs of the Gunnison's species, which Slobodchikoff
has studied, speak different dialects in Grants and Taos, N.M.; Flagstaff,
Ariz.; and Monarch Pass, Colo., but they would likely understand one another,
the professor says.
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- "So far, I think we are showing the most sophisticated
communication system that anyone has shown in animals," Slobodchikoff
said.
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- Slobodchikoff has spent the last two decades studying
prairie dogs and their calls, mostly in Arizona, but also in New Mexico
and Colorado.
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- Prairie dog chatter is variously described by observers
as a series of yips, high-pitched barks or eeks. And most scientists think
prairie dogs simply make sounds that reflect their inner condition. That
means all they're saying are things like "ouch" or "hungry"
or "eek."
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- But Slobodchikoff believes prairie dogs are communicating
detailed information to one another about what animals are showing up in
their colonies, and maybe even gossiping.
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- Linguists have set five criteria that must be met for
something to qualify as language: It must contain words with abstract meanings;
possess syntax in which the order of words is part of their meaning; have
the ability to coin new words; be composed of smaller elements; and use
words separated in space and time from what they represent.
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- "I've been chipping away at all of these,"
Slobodchikoff said.
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- He and his students have done work in the field and in
a laboratory. With digital recorders, they record the calls prairie dogs
make as they see different people, dogs of different sizes and with different
coat colors, hawks, elk. They analyze the sounds using a computer that
dissects the underlying structure and creates a sonogram, or visual representation
of the sound. Computer analysis later identifies the similarities and differences.
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- The prairie dogs have calls for various predators but
also for elk, deer, antelope and cows.
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- "It's as if they're trying to inform one another
what's out there," Slobodchikoff said.
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- So far, he has recorded at least 20 different "words."
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- Some of those words or calls were created by the prairie
dogs when they saw something for the first time. Four prairie dogs in Slobodchikoff's
lab were shown a great-horned owl and European ferret, two animals they
had likely not seen before, if only because the owls are mostly nocturnal
and this kind of ferret is foreign. The prairie dogs independently came
up with the same new calls.
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- In the field, black plywood cutouts showing the silhouette
of a coyote, a skunk and an oval shape were randomly run along a wire through
the prairie dog colony.
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- "There are no black ovals running around out there
and yet they all had the same word for black oval," Slobodchikoff
said.
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- He guesses the prairie dogs are genetically programmed
with some vocabulary and the ability to describe things.
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- Computer analysis has been able to break down some prairie
dog calls into different components, suggesting the critters have yet another
element of a real language.
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- "We're chipping away with this at the idea that
animals don't have language," Slobodchikoff said.
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- Copyright © 2004 by the Casper Star-Tribune published
by Lee Publications, Inc., a subsidiary of Lee Enterprises, Incorporated
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- http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2004/12/04/news/wyoming/
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