Quote:
Originally Posted by fisheye
They do recognize quack snackers!
The point that I was making before was that many animals will make signs, gestures, or sounds to get the attention of people they think will feed them. Your pet dog goes bonkers if it sees you going for it's favorite treat. I think this is merely evolution and not necessarily intelligence. If we are accommodating the needs/wants of animals; it would only be natural for them to show some signs of wants or approval.
Any vocalizations regarding food are not necessarily a sign of higher intelligence.
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That depends on whether there is some structure to the vocalization, and/or whether it can be understood by other orangutans/ducks/dogs etc. An ape researcher claimed in a special a few years ago that she had deciphered special meanings to ape vocalizations that were understood by the other apes. And that phenomenon already is recognized among other species. They "get" the basic meaning of each other's sounds. So that's conceivably the evolutionary road to language.
What was particularly interesting about the article (haven't watched the videos yet) is that it has forced researchers to rethink their theory that apes can't mimic human speech because their voice boxes can't replicate consonants. Because if their brain recognizes the importance of consonants, they can invent other ways, suck as clicking--and that's intelligence!