Animals are communicating all the time. We just don’t understand them very well. When I spend time watching an animal in the wild, or really paying attention to my dog or cat, I begin to notice all sorts of gestures and expressions, subtle compared to the overt ways of human animals, but I am sure very clear and strong messages among the non-human world. Besides their unique voice, they use their ears, tails, legs, and feet, and their whole body to talk to each other. And to us.
This past spring, I watched two doves that were sitting across from each other in a tree in the wooded back area of my house. Their bodies were twitching, almost as if shivering, and I knew they were having a conversation with each other. It lasted about 10 minutes. All the while, they were focused solely on each other. Was it a spat between lovers? (Doves mate for life). Were they making plans or processing an incident that recently happened?
If the different species of animals in the infographic below could speak our language, then I agree with the clever person* who designed this: This is the most basic of what they want us to know.
Only when we listen to what they are not, will we begin to see who they are, and what they are saying.
* I found this Animal Infographic on Social Media and had to share it with you, although I don’t know who the clever designer is.