Table of Contents

Preface 1. What is Communication? 2. Signals and Sensory Perception 3. Is Signaling Intentional or Unintentional? 4. Communication in Birds 5. Communication in Mammals 6. Learning to Communicate 7. The Evolution of Communication 8. Human-Animal Contacts References Index

About the Author

Lesley J. Rogers is a full professor at the University of New England, Armidale, Australia. Gisela Kaplan is a full professor at the University of New England, Armidale, Australia.

Reviews

A well-written survey of what is known about communication in animals (mostly birds and mammals) in eight concise chapters...As a primer to an exciting field of animal behavior, this eminently readable account succeeds in thoroughly engaging the reader. -- Nancy Bent Booklist An accessible, non-technical volume on what all that growling, twittering, snorting and feather-ruffling actually signifies...While often startling, the book also leaves the reader warming to more unfluffy species, supporting the authors' subtext that all animals are worthy of our protection...This volume won't make you Dr. Dolittle, but it will make you question some preconceptions. -- Stephen McCarty South China Morning Post Songs, Roars, and Rituals...is a hard book to dislike. Rogers and Kaplan have an appealing writing style that rolls along with just the right ration of anecdote to theory. They make reference to a wide variety of birds and mammals from every continent...richly laden with examples of animal communication that clarify the definitions being offered...Rogers and Kaplan draw some tricky theoretical distinctions very well...entertaining and elucidative. -- Clive Wynne American Scientist 20010101 From the cat's meow to the bowerbird's bright-blue nest, animals constantly and variously exchange information...[The authors] have written an accessible, consistently absorbing and scientifically scrupulous survey of how animals send signals and of what evolutionary theory tells us about how they came to do so. Publishers Weekly Rogers and Kaplan have written an introductory work that sets the table for a range of important topics: signaling and its importance, communication in birds and mammals, the ontogeny of communication, the evolution of communication, and animal-human contacts...The authors, throughout, make a strong case for the ethical treatment of animals, using communication as a property humans share that blurs the line between human superiority and animals' subordinate status...A welcome addition. -- H.N. Cunningham, Jr. Choice 20010401

A well-written survey of what is known about communication in animals (mostly birds and mammals) in eight concise chapters...As a primer to an exciting field of animal behavior, this eminently readable account succeeds in thoroughly engaging the reader. -- Nancy Bent Booklist An accessible, non-technical volume on what all that growling, twittering, snorting and feather-ruffling actually signifies...While often startling, the book also leaves the reader warming to more unfluffy species, supporting the authors' subtext that all animals are worthy of our protection...This volume won't make you Dr. Dolittle, but it will make you question some preconceptions. -- Stephen McCarty South China Morning Post Songs, Roars, and Rituals...is a hard book to dislike. Rogers and Kaplan have an appealing writing style that rolls along with just the right ration of anecdote to theory. They make reference to a wide variety of birds and mammals from every continent...richly laden with examples of animal communication that clarify the definitions being offered...Rogers and Kaplan draw some tricky theoretical distinctions very well...entertaining and elucidative. -- Clive Wynne American Scientist 20010101 From the cat's meow to the bowerbird's bright-blue nest, animals constantly and variously exchange information...[The authors] have written an accessible, consistently absorbing and scientifically scrupulous survey of how animals send signals and of what evolutionary theory tells us about how they came to do so. Publishers Weekly Rogers and Kaplan have written an introductory work that sets the table for a range of important topics: signaling and its importance, communication in birds and mammals, the ontogeny of communication, the evolution of communication, and animal-human contacts...The authors, throughout, make a strong case for the ethical treatment of animals, using communication as a property humans share that blurs the line between human superiority and animals' subordinate status...A welcome addition. -- H.N. Cunningham, Jr. Choice 20010401

From the cat's meow to the bowerbird's bright-blue nest, animals constantly and variously exchange information. Avians, primates, seals, whales, even insects and lizards send signals in order to find and keep their mates; to deceive predators, or to warn them away; to mark their territories; to train their young; and to pass on useful information. Neurobiologist Rogers (Minds of Their Own) and social scientist Kaplan (also the author of books on Australian feminism) have written an accessible, consistently absorbing and scientifically scrupulous survey of how animals send signals and of what evolutionary theory tells us about how they came to do so. The authors first explain how biologists distinguish between intentional signaling and other behaviors, such as "intention movements" (e.g., a bird flapping its wings before takeoff). Bird songs have inspired their own flock of specialized research; much of this volume covers warblers' warbles, lyrebirds' melodies and finches' trills. We learn why certain acoustic properties suit certain calls (staccato chirps, for example, make birds easier to locate), and we find out how various species teach their young their own calls, signs and songsÄsome calls are largely "learned," others seem to be genetically programmed in much more detail. Mammal calls have proven harder to study, but Rogers and Kaplan explain what we do know. A concluding chapter describes how humans communicate with animals: pet owners and tribal hunter-gatherers both get sympathetic attention. An earlier version of this work was published in England in 1998 as Not Only Roars and Rituals; this revised American edition follows the May publication of the authors' other collaborative survey, The Orangutans (Forecasts, May 22). 8 halftones, 14 line illus. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.