The Design of Animal Communication

When animals, including humans, communicate, they convey information andexpress their perceptions of the world. Because different organisms are able toproduce and perceive different signals, the animal world contains a diversity ofcommunication systems. Based on the approach laid out in the 1950s by Nobel laureateNikolaas Tinbergen, this book looks at animal communication

When animals, including humans, communicate, they convey information andexpress their perceptions of the world. Because different organisms are able toproduce and perceive different signals, the animal world contains a diversity ofcommunication systems. Based on the approach laid out in the 1950s by Nobel laureateNikolaas Tinbergen, this book looks at animal communication from the fourperspectives of mechanisms, ontogeny, function, and phylogeny.The book's greatstrength is its broad comparative perspective, which enables the reader toappreciate the diversity of solutions to particular problems of signal design andperception. For example, although the neural circuitry underlying the production ofacoustic signals is different in frogs, songbirds, bats, and humans, each involves aset of dedicated pathways designed to solve particular problems of communicativeefficiency. Such comparative findings form the basis of a conceptual framework forunderstanding the mechanisms underlying communication systems and theirevolution.