Horses are the best “soft-spoken”
people who claim to know “horse language” and can communicate with horses are often ruthlessly ridiculed by relatives and friends, but a recently published study shows that they do “have some skills” .
For the study, a team from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark experimented with domestic and wild horses.
They used invisible speakers to play human recordings near the animals to see if the animals detected different emotional tinges in the human voices. To prevent certain domesticated animals from responding to specific words, the recordings were presented as “babbling” without any meaningful pronunciation.
Researchers have found that animals can detect positive and negative emotions in human voices and respond differently accordingly.
When they received sounds that contained negative emotions, their attention was quickly focused, and their reactions were generally faster and stronger. For example, the number of pacing back and forth of domestic horses has increased significantly, and the tail wagging of wild horses has become more restrained (a sign of concentration).
Both domestic horses and wild horses were more docile and relaxed when receiving a human voice with a positive mood and a calm tone.
This shows that how we speak to animals is actually very important.
Gorilla remembers your voice and attitude
In the animal kingdom, gorillas are equally admirable for their vocal recognition skills.
Another study, published in Animal Cognition, found captive gorillas in zoos could not only recognize familiar human voices, but also quickly associate the voices with unpleasant memories.
A research team at the University of Georgia played three recordings to gorillas and observed their reactions. The recordings are from: 1. The breeder who has been taking care of the gorillas for at least 4 years, who often interacts actively with the animals and is friendly and polite at work; 2. People who are familiar with the gorillas but do not like them, including veterinarians and maintenance workers There are often negative interactions; three, other strangers.
The researchers found that the gorillas had little response to their keepers’ voices. But when they heard the voices of strangers, veterinarians and workers, their vigilance quickly rose, and they roared in grief and anger from time to time. “This may be the prelude to its aggressive behavior.”
”In the wild, we often observe similar situations: gorillas will put down the food in their hands immediately after hearing unfamiliar or threatening sounds.” Primate Animal behavioral ecologists say.
The meaning of “polite speaking” The
above research proves that every word and deed of human beings will directly affect the “mood” of animals.
This opens up an interesting new idea for the improvement of animal welfare, that is, humans can “pay attention to words” when facing animals, which can make animals less anxious and more comfortable and happy.
Of course, the animals will also respond positively to your “treat each other with courtesy”. Some animals may be less sharp and more docile towards you, such as horses; some animals may silently remember you and treat you differently, such as cats, dogs, gorillas (Note: cats and dogs have been proven to recognize owners and strangers The human voice can even judge the owner’s emotional state according to the tone).
