Australian Babbler can arrange sounds to transmit messages like people

Recent research by scientists shows that Australian babbler birds can also communicate in the same way as humans.

Australian Babbler can be delivered with similar human sounds

Stringing of meaningless sounds to create meaningful signals was previously considered to be unique to humans, but research published in the journal PLOS Biology reveals Australian babbler (Australian babbler) information. ) can also communicate in the same way as humans.

Researchers at Exeter University and Zurich found that chestnut-crowned babbler, a bird found in the Australian Outback (part of Australia inside), is capable of communicating The new message means by rearranging the pre-existing sounds.

'Although previous studies have shown that animals, especially birds, have the ability to sequence individual sounds as part of a complex song, these songs often do not mean anything. and the changing order of the sounds in the song doesn't change the overall message , 'said Sabrina Engesser of the University of Zurich.

'In contrast to most songbirds, the chestnut babbler does not sing. Instead of its vocal repertoire is characterized by different messages made up of separate small sounds. "

The chestnut babbler is capable of conveying new messages meaning by rearranging the pre-existing sounds.

Research co-author Andy Russell from Exeter University thinks that the baboons can choose to rearrange the sounds to create new meaning because combining two available sound sequences is much faster than developing one. completely new sound.

Scientists found that the Baby Crested Babbler uses two 'A' and ' B' sounds in different arrangements when describing specific behaviors. When flying, these birds make a sound sequence for the flying behavior of 'AB ', but when feeding their children in the nest they create a sound sequence of 'BAB'.

When the researchers played back the sound sequence, the birds heard the ability to distinguish between two different sound sequences. They will look at the nest when they hear the sound of feeding and look out when there are birds flying to hear the sound sequence describing flight behavior. This is also the case when researchers convert elements of two messages to each other.

'This is the first time to show the ability to create new meanings from the arrangement of proven nonsense elements that exist in species other than humans ,' said Simon Townsend, co-researcher from Zurich University. 'Although the bird's two messages have a similar structure, they create two very different communication sequences and the birds receive information that is capable of distinguishing the received signal.'

The authors stated that in the community of chestnut crested baboons, the first sound element is 'B' which is considered to distinguish the meaning between flight and instant cry, like 'cat' and 'at' in English, when 'c' represents a differentiating factor, or phoneme.

'Although this so-called structural phoneme is a fairly simple form, it can help us understand the possibility of creating a new meaning in the early stages of human development,' Townsend said. 'It may be the first structural phoneme formed in our ancestors, this is the form of information originally formed'.