Last but not least: What humans can do, the zebra mongoose has been able to do for a long time
Until now, it was assumed that the way humans speak was relatively unique. It was assumed that short, monosyllabic contact or warning calls made by animals had no combinatorial structures. But now the zebra mongooses have joined the discussion.
Due to their anatomy, animals can only produce a limited number of different sounds. However, according to SDA, a team of researchers from the University of Zurich has now been able to demonstrate that zebra mongooses structure sounds in a similar way to humans. The researchers found that even short, monosyllabic calls of free-living zebra mongooses are structured and contain several pieces of information. According to SDA, behavioral biologist Marta Manser and doctoral student David Jansen have now established this.
However, they only proved that despite their brevity, the monosyllabic calls have several separate vocalizations. The first part of the call provides information about the identity of the caller, while the second part provides information about its current activity. While the layman may interpret this to mean that zebra mongooses obviously don't have much to say to each other, the researcher understands this finding as follows: Zebra mongooses have a sound utterance structure that bears a certain resemblance to the vowel and consonant system of human speech.
An interesting observation for researchers... But the zebra mongooses will not be able to do the communication work for us with this ability. (uma)
Teaser image: Keystone
