Wild bird songs vs domesticated bird songs

So here's a really interesting article about what happens to bird songs when a bird is domesticated. Basically the song changes from something very constructed to something very unconstructed when a bird has been domesticated for a few generations. It's interesting, and they are applying what happened to these birds to what may have happened to our primate ancestors.

The hypothesis is that we are self-domesticated apes, and what this ends up meaning is perhaps why we have such a sophisticated language, and other primates do not, is because we took a few evolutionary steps backwards before going forwards. I don't really like using those terms, because in this sense backwards has a negative connotation, but I can't say I don't agree. It makes sense, and I can believe this really happened. I'd like to see more studies on this to confirm the hypothesis.

Complex calls for prairie dog predators

In a recent episode of Natural World, they showcased prairie dog calls. These rodents seem to not only have different calls for predators, but adjectives for those predators as well. The difference between a snake, and a particularly large snake for example.

I can't tell much difference between the calls, but the prairie dogs obviously can, and so can this guy apparently. Prairie dogs are very social animals who live in fairly large groups, so it makes sense they would have a sophisticated language.

If you have access to BBC I definitely recommend this show in general, but at least watch this particular episode. It's pretty interesting. Plus prairie dogs are so cute :)

Monkey's using syntax!

According to this article on nytimes.com they have found a group of monkeys that are using syntax. Syntax is something we have long considered uniquely human. The closest thing I've ever seen to another animal using syntax is sign-language Koko using "bean ball" to describe a pea. But that's really compounding, not syntax.

I imagine there are other animals besides us and Campbell's Monkeys that use syntax in their communication, but it's yet to be seen. The article suggests whale calls are a possibility. I would love to see a study on that with more conclusive evidence. I always imagined whale songs to be the closest real equivalent to the mythical language of the birds.