Do Animals Have Language?

This is highly debated, especially as to what exactly is 'language', but the research evidence is mounting up that they do.

Most famous, perhaps, is an African Gray parrot named Alex who has been taught to speak English to get what he wants; what's more, he puts together words that he has learnt into new ways, and he asks his trainers for words to describe new things.

Another celebrity is Koko the gorilla, a captive animal in California, who has learnt over a 1000 words in American sign language.  She has had several 'pet' kittens, although she makes it clear that what she really wants is a baby of her own (her living conditions haven't it possible for her to breed).  Koko has taken part in several interviews with journalists.

More evidence comes from observations of wild prairie dogs.  Prairie does are wild rodents in North America.  They live in large colonies and are preyed upon by just about every local carnivore. Two decades of research, analysing their calls, suggests that the prairie dogs can distinguish different types of predator and non-predator.  They even have distinctive calls depending on the colours of clothes that visiting people wear.  In Animals In Translation, the researcher Temple Gardin speculates that language tends to be most developed among species with a high predation level; animals with many enemies have to work well together to survive at all.