Discovery that kangaroos can communicate with humans in a polite way is rather exciting – Scotsman comment

There is a special bond between humans and our pets.
Kangaroos can communicate with humans, a new study has found (Picture: Gaston Subovsky/Getty Images/iStockphoto)Kangaroos can communicate with humans, a new study has found (Picture: Gaston Subovsky/Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Kangaroos can communicate with humans, a new study has found (Picture: Gaston Subovsky/Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Anyone who has ever owned a dog or a cat, in particular, will know just how well we can communicate with – if not quite talk to like Dr Doolittle – the animals. They appear to understand quite a few human words, they most certainly react to our tone of voice, and they can convey a range of emotions, including happiness, sadness, annoyance, embarrassment and guilt.

But now researchers have discovered that wild kangaroos are able to ask us an important question in a way that we can understand.

Read More
Australian police use pepper spray to halt attack - by a kangaroo
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

A study found that kangaroos at three separate locations in Australia would gaze at a human in an attempt to persuade them to open a box that they knew contained food, rather than trying to open it themselves.

This might initially sound odd – the animals could have simply been looking at the human – but we all understand this kind of ‘knowing gaze’ when we encounter it.

Scientists had thought that such communication skills might be related to the domestication process, but the fact that wild animals are able to do it suggests we share closer bonds with other species than some may have previously believed.

Wild animals can become aggressive when they want food or just swoop in to snatch it, but the kangaroos in these studies appear to have adopted an appealingly polite manner.

The existence of a cross-species ‘language’ – even if limited to a non-verbal version of “would you please give me some of your food” – is, as the scientists said, a rather exciting discovery.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.

Related topics:

Comments

 0 comments

Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.