Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping how we understand the natural world. By decoding the sounds of animals—whale clicks, elephant rumbles, or crow caws—scientists hope to reveal the hidden complexities of their communication. This burgeoning field may deepen our understanding of animal behavior and offer new ways to protect threatened and endangered species.
A Whale By Any Other Name
For Shane Gero, a whale biologist, understanding sperm whale communications begins with recognizing their individuality. Working off the coast of Dominica, Gero and his team gave names to whales, including Pinchy, Scar, and Fingers. These names are more than identifiers—they are reminders that each whale plays a unique role in its family and ecosystem. “Our science addresses these animals under the assumption that they’re uniquely important to the network of life that they are in,” Gero explained.
Sperm whales communicate using “codas,” sequences of clicks that serve as social and navigational tools. These codas, varying in tempo and rhythm, create dialects that mark clan boundaries and establish connections within groups. Gero and his colleagues used artificial intelligence to analyze more than 8,700 codas, uncovering subtle nuances like “rubato,” a rhythmic variation that adds expressiveness, and “ornamentation,” extra clicks akin to musical flourishes. These features may form the building blocks of a whale “phonetic alphabet.”
AI also reveals surprising patterns among terrestrial animals. Researchers used machine learning to uncover what appears to be naming behavior in wild African elephants. These mammals address each other with specific vocalizations akin to names. The team verified this by playing back the calls and observing targeted responses.
Caw-ing on AI for Help
Crows, too, are part of this AI revolution. A population of carrion crows in Spain exhibits unique social behaviors, including cooperative chick-rearing. Using AI tools like Voxaboxen, researchers identified softer, less detectable vocalizations alongside the loud caws that typically define crow communication. By pairing these sounds with data from accelerometers and video footage, they aim to map out the birds’ interactions and better understand their teamwork. “We couldn’t really process all this information without artificial intelligence,” said researcher Daniela Canestrari, a behavioral ecologist.
Beyond Translation: A Path Toward Coexistence
While researchers caution against the idea of “talking” to animals in the near future, the implications of decoding their communication are profound. Understanding animal vocalizations could guide conservation efforts, helping humans make better decisions about how to share space with other species. For example, sperm whale populations face severe challenges in Dominica, including ship strikes and fishing net entanglements.
Gero envisions using whale communication to avoid ship collisions. However, he notes that “I don’t want to make a whale alarm for all the bad things that humans are doing because we’re bad neighbors. “I would rather learn from the animals about how to be a good neighbor, and then do that.”
AI as a Partner in Human-Animal Communication
Machines, while adept at spotting patterns, lack the context and intuition that humans bring to the study of animal communication. Caroline Casey, an animal behavioral ecologist, emphasizes that AI must complement, not replace, traditional fieldwork. “The human mind is able to integrate our understanding of our own world and the way that we operate and use that to actually aid in the interpretation of animal behavior,” she says.
Researchers at the Earth Species Project are training AI on a mix of acoustic data, including human speech, music and animal sounds. The goal is to create computer models that could uncover universal communication features. The researchers hope to first be able to identify sounds as speech as a step toward understanding what varied sounds mean.
Listening to Learn
The goals of research efforts to understand animal communication aim to gain knowledge about animal cognition, build empathy for animals, and advance animal conservation efforts. By learning to interpret the voices of other species, we can actively improve how we interact with them and create a more supportive and respectful coexistence.
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