How Do Animals Communicate?

What's amazing about animals is their communication without any words. They use body language and sounds to convey their messages. Even humans that have cats and dogs know that their pets are communicating with them, but words are never fully understood by the pet. If you watch two animals interact with each other, you can clearly see that they are communicating and understand each other.

Body Language

First, in the animal kingdom, body language is very important. In fact, it's as important as the words you speak. For instance, dogs that are playing with each other clearly have a relaxed look, they may even appear to smile, perhaps bark in a higher than normal pitch. On the other hand, two cats that do not like one another and are about to fight may lower their bodies to the ground, ears pasted back to their head, hissing, growling, and the hair on the body may be raise up as they ready themselves for attack.

Dogs that are happy to see their owner when they come home wag their tails, give kisses, and want nothing more than to be as close as possible to their owner. You know what they are saying to you, “I'm happy you're home." Animals in the wild also use their bodies as a way to communicate, and scientists study these behaviors to help them better understand wild animals. Birds communicate with one another, just listen outside in the early morning hours and they are singing and chirping. Humans like to think the birds are doing all this singing for them, but actually they are communicating with other birds. 

Vocalizing 

Animals can be very vocal with one another and they understand what the other is saying. It isn't so much “words” as it is the sounds that they make. You may instantly think of a dog's bark, a cat's meow or bird chirping as vocal communication. However, even whales in the ocean communicate with each other via vocalization, which is truly incredible because they can pick up on sounds far away from one another.

Sometimes silence is golden, and is definitely true in the animal kingdom. Think about wild animals, if a deer knows that there are lions around, the deer is going to remain still and quiet. If a rabbit senses predators nearby, they will blend in with the grasses and remain quiet. Animals understand the importance of silence within the language much more than humans do.