Canines Communicate With Their Own 'Howling Dialects,' Study Finds

[Judi Lynn]

Canines Communicate With Their Own 'Howling Dialects,' Study Finds
Don't speak red wolf? Turns out grey wolves don't either.

 02/08/2016 03:35 pm ET

Nina Golgowski
Trends reporter, The Huffington Post

A new study has found that canid species -- from wolves and coyotes to dogs and foxes -- communicate with their own “howling dialects.”

A team of international researchers narrowed down 21 types of howls, linking their different pitches and fluctuations to specific species and subspecies, according to a new paper published in next month's edition of the journal Behavioural Processes.

"We found that different species and subspecies showed markedly different use of howl types, indicating that howl modulation is not arbitrary, but can be used to distinguish one population from another," the researchers wrote in the study.

In other words, howl types or "dialects" are similar to how we humans have different languages around the world.

The researchers used computer algorithms to analyze more than 2,000 howls collected from both captive and wild animals in Australia, India, Europe and the United States. The result is what’s being touted as the largest quantitative study of its kind.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/canines-have-their-own-dialects_us_56b8b934e4b04f9b57da5bb9

[1StrongBlackMan]

1. I have noticed that our poodles react differently to the coyote howls we hear ...

at times their ears perk up and they listen, and then, go about their business ... at other times, their ears perk up, they listen, and then, they either scurry behind me or head straight for the patio door.

Maybe my dogs speak coyote?

[Gman]

2. I wouldn't call it a different language

It's more of different dialects of the same language. Listen to the dogs in the neighborhood when the mailman is on the block or a strange dog wanders in. None sound the same, but they all know somethings around that doesn't belong.

Just my many years of observing. Playful barks and howls from a few houses over don't get answered. Right now, as I type this, the next door neighbor's dog is barking up a serious storm. Probably because school kids are antagonizing her as they often do. (They're fenced well so it's ok). But no other dog in the neighborhood answered. It wasn't that kind of bark.

[Javaman]

3. my does doesn't howl.

does that mean he can still understand?