Monkeys Shown to Have Complex Grammar Skills
Grammar Nazis—*cough* PETA editors *cough*—listen up: It turns out that you might have more in common with monkeys than with your fellow humans.
New research suggests that nonhuman animals are capable of communicating not only among their own kind but also with members of other species. Klaus Zuberbühler, a psychologist at University of St. Andrews in Scotland, spent hundreds of hours listening to the calls of Campbell's monkeys and other species, gradually decoding their language, which is so grammatically sophisticated that it uses suffixes to change the meaning of calls based on the kinds of animals posing a threat. These intricate calls, which are used to pass on complex information about predators and their whereabouts, could be understood by other species of monkeys and even by birds such as hornbills.
We're constantly learning more about the countless ways in which animals of all kinds are brilliant, selfless, and complex. Meanwhile, with all our texts, tweets, and e-mails, we sometimes can't even talk to other humans—let alone other members of other species (um, TISNF, BBIAB, FUBAR—WTF?).
Posted by Logan Scherer
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Ahh yes, science has don't it again! I'd really like to see a monkey governor or a literary genius.
This "research" sounds absolutely ridiculous.
"These intricate calls, which are used to pass on complex information about predators and their whereabouts, could be understood by other species of monkeys and even by birds such as hornbills."
How could the researcher possibly draw this conclusion from listening to the sounds the monkey makes? Sounds like an extreme case of inflation to me. And this pathetic attempt to try to assert that animals are smarter than humans is laughable - "we sometimes can't even talk to other humans." This is indeed FUBAR, PETA .
I believe this is something we've known all along: Monkeys are a LOT smarter than the folks at PETA .