What if we could communicate with other animals?

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Anyone who’s ever read the ‘Doctor Doolittle’ books as a child probably has fantasies about being able to talk to the animals. But what if we really could communicate with other species? Pioneering work by people such as Jane Goodall with chimpanzees showed that communication in other species is more than just a series of meaningless noises. Different sounds, as well as facial expressions and gestures, can convey a great deal of meaning. More recently work with prairie dogs demonstrated that what sounds like a simple squeak to us actually conveys all kinds of information, we just don’t have the ability to hear it. Now artificial intelligence is very good at analysing data and looking for patterns. Perhaps we can learn to understand some of those languages and maybe we could even reply. But then what? Would it change how we interact with the creatures that share our world? All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2026.