Ronnie's Blog

Did you know that animals respond to distress calls even when they come from another species? Biologists at the University of Winnipeg noticed that many infant mammals have similar distress calls, so they decided to play the recorded cries from a variety of species to wild female Canadian mule deer via hidden speakers and observe the animals’ reactions. The mother deer quickly investigated the distress calls, including those that came from seals, dogs, cats, and even humans. It’s been shown that infant distress calls share common elements across a range of mammals—some separated by more than 90 million years of evolution—and animals of different species understand and even respond to these cries.