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Short Summary: Do elephants and other animals have language-like abilities, such as the ability to use individual names to refer to themselves and others?

About the guest: Michael Pardo, PhD studies animal behavior at Cornell University, where he focused on animal communication and cognition. His work includes extensive field research with African elephants in Kenya.

Note: Podcast episodes are fully available to paid subscribers on the M&M Substack and everyone on YouTube. Partial versions are available elsewhere. Full transcript and other information on Substack.

Episode Summary: Michael Pardo, PhD talks about his research on animal communication, focusing on whether African savanna elephants use vocal "names" to address each other. They explore the broader context of vocal communication across species like dolphins, parrots, and marmosets, discussing how these systems compare to human language and what they reveal about its evolution. Dr. Pardo shares details of his fieldwork in Kenya, elephant social structures, and their behaviors like mourning the dead, while also touching on the challenges and joys of studying animals in their natural habitats.

Key Takeaways:

• Elephants may use unique vocal rumbles to address specific individuals.
• Dolphins use signature whistles as "calling cards," sometimes imitating others’ whistles to get their attention, hinting at a form of naming.
• Elephant society features female-led family groups and dispersing males.
• Elephants show intriguing behaviors like visiting carcasses and covering them with dirt, suggesting an awareness of death uncommon in most animals.
• Human language evolution may have evolved gradually from simpler communication systems, as seen in various species, rather than emerging suddenly.
• Studying less charismatic animals like chickens could uncover surprisingly complex communication, broadening our understanding of cognition in nature.

Related episode:

• M&M #20: Language, Symbolic Cognition, Evolution, Origins of the Human Mind

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