Animal Language

[Mashiigwe]

Cats are pretty complex and a bunch of us live with the little wonders. Somehow I have a group of six very distinct individuals. I was hanging out this morning with my teacher, Sashie who happens to be a deer, and has taught me a bit of deer language. They rarely speak, though occasionally she will vocalize with me. They mostly communicate with their eyes, head bobbing, and their tongue. When people see deer some things that show predatory signals that we may be projecting are being totally quiet, staring, and walking slowly and very quietly. Like a cat stalking. We sometimes see them at a distance and if the wind's right (they have a better sense of smell than a bloodhound, and can't see us if we don't move). That's a good time to stay still and not be seen. However, they have a great sense of awareness and may let us get closer if we don't show predatory signs. Walking "without a purpose", not staring, and talking softly. That's deer stuff. It would be interesting to learn about how any of you who have an understanding of other wild creatures and how they communicate. There's a falconer in this group, maybe cat talkers, fish talkers. Please teach us. Thank you

[SnowCat]

Most of my clowder uses telepathy with me, at least part of the time. Other times, things are more straightforward. Staring at the tiny spot where the bottom of the bowl is visible. Surrounded by plenty of food. Or someone will sit in an empty water dish. It doesn't matter that six other water dishes have plenty of water. The empty one is critical.

Snow

[random417]

Staring at the tiny spot where the bottom of the bowl is visible. Surrounded by plenty of food.
Snow

That's a cat for you! Barkley does that too!

[random417]

I've always been good with animals, it's a mixture of telepathy and reading body language. I can't point to anything specific, but they always seem to make their wishes known

[Shub Niggurath]

What I learned is that it's very important to make a good first impression to talk to/connect with an animal. But the most important thing is respect and basic savoir vivre. It's kind of similar with people - we won't just come to a random person we never met before and say "yo sup bro" or touch them/pat them. Us, humans, we tend to treat animals like retards or objects and take their companionship for granted, we place ourselves above them. It annoys me.
When I try to communicate with animals I'm always careful not to touch them without their permission or not to come too close if they don't want me to. I wait for a sign, permission. Sometimes I'm not allowed to come closer and/or touch but that's okay. I mainly communicate with animals through stares (telepathy, but without words, hard to explain) and body language. It's easy if you allow your intuition to guide you.

Your story is really fascinating, Mashiigwe! A deer teacher, how wonderful!

[spikeychick]

When I was younger, i once spoke with a tank of lobsters. Started out conversing with one and pretty soon the whole tank congregated and spoke. They have a sort of group mind going on which is really cool. I had a few humans gather to watch our interaction as well which was nifty. Sadly, i was at a Red Lobster when this occured
I spoke with deer before as well, my partner and I were on a walk in the city we came across a doe and she stood her ground, acted as though she needed to cross before us and kept looking back behind her. Soon emerged a baby deer, and they crossed in front of us. It was nice seeing her eyes soften as her child came near her. Lol my cat is pretty amusing to hear chatter at the family. He loves talking to birds. though cats have a lot of subtly with them. Slight chatter, eat twitches, eye movements are important as tail flicks. Though I have always regarded eyes as the windows to the soul, to be very literal. Eyes speak so much about an animal, or person even. kinda cool how all that works! Thanks for the nifty post!

[Mashiigwe]

There's a story about how humans lost the ability to speak with the animal people. I suppose "we" threw it away because we lost the ability to listen. It's a pretty general story it seems, because many people still know how to listen. Hahaha, cats make us listen. Poor lobsters: what a creepy way to treat them. They really must have a collective intelligence like bees and ants. Huh, thank you for the thought, Spikeychick. Yes, Levitating Cat, I'm darn lucky. Sashimoto also has a really goofy sense of humor, too.

[Floyd Pinkerton]

There's a story about how humans lost the ability to speak with the animal people. I suppose "we" threw it away because we lost the ability to listen.

I agree with this so much. We, as humans, seem to have a superiority complex. We think we're better than animals, that we own them and own the world. But that's not true.
I've always felt I had a connection with animals and I would love to learn to communicate with them better.

[SnowInSummer]

Love reading this post, particularly about the deer Just wanted to add my 2 cents, as I have a close connection to horses, that from what I just read they seem similar to deer. It must be that they are both prey animals, and we are predators, so body language has a lot to do with it when it comes to approaching or communicating with them. With horses, the first things to pay attention to would be their head position, mouth, ears, feet, and tail. Their head can be low and relaxed, or high and alert. Ears forward can mean alert or attentive, while pinned back is a warning. Alternatively, they can be relaxed and hanging off the sides, or just listening behind them. They swish their tails much like a cat, and convey many of the same things a cat would, while raising a leg or thrusting their hip is a warning. When they are relaxed and accepting, they will chew and lick their lips.
Over time, I've grown very accustomed to their subtleties in facial expression and body language, and they've taught me sooo many things. I always say that horse sense is common sense, and I have yet to be proven wrong. Mostly, they have taught me to listen just by watching. I have a hard time trying to explain it to non horse people. I can point out certain "tells," but I have trouble explaining why I know their individual personalities, what they like/dislike. For example, a few months ago I took it upon myself to work with a horse who had become *very* aggressive in his stall. You could not even approach him to put on his halter without him trying to rip your face off, let alone groom him. I'm not a professional trainer, but I've always seemed to have an intuition for them. I took my time with him, trying to make entering his stall a positive experience, letting him know what I wanted and standing my ground without it being a challenge. I think I was very lucky with him that he's quite intelligent, and he quickly caught on to what I was asking him. Now, he comes to me and puts his nose in the halter for me, and even his behavior outside the stall has improved. Simply listening to him and relieving what stressors I could allowed him to be able to process and cope with the things I couldn't. I don't know everything that goes through his mind, of course, but I at least know enough to try to figure it out. I'd like to get him to the point where he can tolerate other people, but he is a very particular horse and for now I am his go to person. The problem there is not so much him as it is with everyone else. They know what he is capable of, and their actions towards him, while well meaning, are based off mistrust. Ironically, their own actions set him off and he behaves just as they expected him to. I've given up trying to explain it to people and simply say to them, "because he told me."