The Voices of Nature

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"What messages do animals send to each other using sound? How can we decipher them? What lessons might these messages offer for understanding the origins and workings of our own communication? Scientists who study bioacoustics try and answer these questions, using physiology, animal behavior, and evolutionary biology to understand how and why animals communicate via sound. In this book, Nicholas Mathevon offers readers an accessible overview of the field of bioacoustics, from the mechanisms of sound to its complex social function. Comprising short, accessible chapters, A Sound Journey explores how sound travels underwater, the act of hearing, and how animals use sounds inaudible to humans. Mathevon also shows how animals use sound to communicate in various circumstances, including parent-offspring relationships, conflict, expressions of emotion, and complex socialization. The study of acoustic communication enables a better understanding of the complexities of animal behavior, and the book uses examples from throughout the animal kingdom to illustrate how discoveries in bioacoustics have revealed various species' behaviors. In the final chapters, Mathevon explores animal "language" and the various philosophical and biological implications of this topic, both for various wild and domesticated species and for our understanding of how human communication systems developed"--