Introduction How many times a day do you communicate with someone else? And in how many ways? Do you give your loved ones hugs each morning? Do you wave hello to your friends? Do you recognize the smell of your grandmother''s perfume? Do you ask the person sitting next to you in the lunchroom to stop mixing up all his food into a big ole food pile? We humans communicate with one another all the time, and in countless different ways. Don''t be fooled into thinking that we are the only living things doing this, though; the natural world around us also gets in on the gossip. We are surrounded by nonhuman life. From plants to plant hoppers to possums, this life talks. You don''t need to spend years learning a new language to understand their conversations. You just need to know what to look for. We''re here to help! Once you find these hidden conversations, you can listen in to reveal the secrets around you. Squirrels will tell you who''s hidden, lurking below them.
Chickadees squeak out the secrets of the treetops. Crickets serve as helpful tools if we don''t have thermometers handy. But first, we need to understand how communication works. Communication is just the exchange of information. When you say "PLEASE STOP" to your little brother, you''re giving him a bit of information about what you''d like him to do. You are using sound. As in, "Bertram"--that''s your little brother; his name is Bertram now--"I would like you to stop wiping your boogers on me. I am trying to watch television.
" You have other ways of asking Bertram to stop. You don''t have to use words. Some people (not you) might shove their brothers. That''s communicating by using touch. Some people (not you) might expel gas on him. That''s communicating through smell. Some people (not you) might turn to face Bertram and give him a really mean and scary look. That''s communicating by sight.
Living things in the natural world use all these ways to communicate, too. Before we figure out what they''re saying, let''s talk about how they do it. This world has four primary tools to communicate: sight, sound, chemicals, and touch. When living things communicate by sight, or vision, it''s called visual communication . Visual communicators send signals to others, who receive those signals with their eyes. Brightly colored male birds, like stop sign-red cardinals, send signals to females that say, "Look at me, ladies! I''m so healthy and cool!" Some living things can send and receive visual signals that our human eyes cannot detect. Most humans can see all the hues in the rainbow. We can see all the in-between shades that the colors of the rainbow blend to make.
There are some colors, however, that our eyes can''t detect. Imagine the colors of the rainbow in a line, with red on one end and violet at the other. Each one of these shades has its own wavelength of light. (Light flows like waves. Wavelengths are just the distance between the tips of waves. Big waves have long wavelengths. Short, quick waves have smaller wavelengths.) Light bounces off surfaces and hits your eyes.
Each hue hits your eye at a different wavelength. While our human eyes detect all the wavelengths in this rainbow, some colors have wavelengths outside the rainbow. The colors that come before red on your imaginary color line are called infrared , which are basically the images made from heat. Colors that come after violet are called ultraviolet . Even though we can''t see infrared and ultraviolet, we know they exist. Other creatures can see them, and they use them to find food, send signals, and make their way around the world. When living things use sounds to communicate, it''s called auditory communication . Similar to light, sound travels in waves.
Humans can detect some sounds but not others. Sounds that are too low for us to detect are called infrasounds . Elephants make long-distance calls to one another using infrasounds. The sounds too high for our ears to detect are called ultrasounds . Dolphins, bats, fish, mice, and many other creatures use ultrasounds to communicate. Smell and taste fall into the category of chemical communication . Chemicals are basically recipes, and elements are the ingredients. Salt is a chemical.
The recipe is one sodium atom and one chlorine atom. The world is made up of an uncountable number of chemicals. When chemicals become airborne, we can sometimes smell them. Many living things use chemicals to communicate. Scientists believe human noses can detect nearly a trillion scents. Still, there are plenty of scents created by the life around us that aren''t made for us. Sometimes we can smell them (your dog''s feet!) and sometimes we can''t (the moth calling for its love on your porch light). Even though you can''t smell them, if you pay attention, you will be able to detect these chemicals in action all around you.
More on that later! The final way living things communicate is through touch, or tactile communication . Hairs and whiskers can help increase our ability to detect tactile communication. Hugs, kisses, and handshakes are all ways humans use tactile communication to get the message across. Animals use tactile communication, too, to get their own messages across. You''ll see. After you read these pages, you''ll be equipped to do some major eavesdropping. Where will you begin? With the ground below and all the wild banter happening beneath your feet? With the raucous caucus in the treetops? Or perhaps you''ll look for hidden meanings in your friends'' faces. Wherever you begin, you''re sure to find surprising secrets and extraordinary experiences in the life around you.
Open your eyes and ears! Get those noses all cleaned out! Those fingers and toes ready for the feels! It''s time to eavesdrop on our world!.