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Humans

Two eye-opening new books delve into the world of animal communication

Tom Mustill's How to Speak Whale and Karen Bakker's The Sounds of Life explore what we know about the way life on Earth communicates, from whales to coral reefs. They are both must-reads

By Chris Stokel-Walker

5 October 2022

EXF91J Scuba diver approaches adult female humpback whale and younger male escort, Roca Partida, Revillagigedo, Mexico — Cetaceans are believed to be the animals most like our chatty selves
Rodrigo Friscione/Image Source/Alamy

Tom Mustill (William Collins)

Karen Bakker (Princeton University Press)

PASSENGERS taking the train through Port Elizabeth in South Africa in the 1880s – today called Gqeberha – had more than the passing brushland to look at as they crossed the country and stared out of the window. As the train reached a certain signal box, they might have noticed that their safe passage was ensured not by a human, but by a chacma baboon.

Jack, as the baboon was…

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