Learning How To Speak
The notion that speech is a singularly human skill is one that has only slowly been accepted as false. Repeated experiments, dating back at least 40 years, have shown that several species outside man have the ability to command intelligent thought patterns that express more than mere emotion. Sure, a dog can display anger or affection with ease in a manner that can be comprehended by virtually any other mammal that it encounters, but short of a clear acceptance or rejection of a bowl of food, can it tell you what it wants to eat for breakfast?
Be they dolphins, apes, or even birds, long term encounters with individuals from certain species have shown us that communication beyond this basic level is, indeed, possible. Take, for instance, Akeakamai and Phoenix, two dolphins from the Kewalo Basin Marine mammal Laboratory in Hawaii that were heavily studied in the 1980's.
Akeakamai and Phoenix are asked to create a trick and do it together. The two dolphins swim away from...