Hello, hello hello, hello Hello!

Hey, it’s Mike.

Hi Mike.

Dude, hey!

What's up?

How are you?

My friends and I do a lot of talking.

We also write, draw, and use body language.

Sometimes we even sing and dance.

I don't know that one.

This is the part I wrote.

Come on.

Stomp, stomp, stomp.

(inaudible) Stomp!

This is how nature works!

Theme Music Music What happens when the cloud goes over it?

Absolutely nothing.

They change back.

Yeah.

And then- We have a lot of different ways to tell people what we want, who we are, how we feel, and what we think.

For people, it's absolutely necessary to exchange information.

But humans aren’t the only animals that communicate.

Even though they don't talk, animals communicate.

And they might use sound, sight, smell, touch, or taste.

Animals use communication for lots of different reasons: to attract mates, scare away predators, live together, and recognize other animals in their group.

Birds claim territory and attract mates with sound.

Deer do the same with scent.

Wolves and dogs threaten with body language.

Honeybees dance to tell other bees where they can find nectar.

Lobsters use their antenna to communicate.

When animals exhibit behaviors or characteristics that can be seen by other animals, it's called visual communication.

Animals use at least two types of visual communication.

One type is a color or shape on the animal itself that other animals can see.

Because they're part of the animal, they are structural adaptations.

Scientists call them badges.

For example, the yellow jacket’s stripes warn predators away.

A male deer's antler size tells rivals how powerful he is.

Animals also do things that visually communicate to other animals.

Because these communications are things that animals do, they are behavioral adaptations.

Scientists call behavior that is used to communicate displays.

To show dominance, a wolf will stare at the other wolves, raise its fur, and bear its teeth.

Submissive wolves will put their tails between their legs and lie on their backs to show that they are not a threat.

Animals also use touching or tactile communication when caring for their young, grooming, and mating.

Wolves greet the dominant male in the pack by licking his muzzle.

Many animals communicate using chemical substances from their bodies.

Ants secrete substances called pheromones that guide other ants to food.

Luna moths use pheromones to attract mates.

Animals also signal danger, attract mates, claim territory, and identify themselves to other animals using sound or auditory communication.

Whales and dolphins send sounds through the water.

Humpback whales sing songs that last 30 minutes and travel hundreds of miles.

Seals identify their young with sound.

To find their pups among hundreds of others, mother seals call out and listen for their pup’s special call.

One way or another, most creatures communicate, whether it's with sound, sight, smell, touch, or taste.

Last winter, Dave and I went out to find how animals around the nature center communicate.

Music What's that smell?

That's the fox’s scent.

This is a type of chemical communication, right?

That's right.

You can bet if we can even smell this a little that it's important to fox’s ability to communicate.

You know, foxes have good eyesight, very good hearing, but they've got a great sense of smell.

So it only makes sense that they would use chemical odors to communicate.

How does this scent work as a means of communication?

Well, red foxes have three scent glands.

They have one at the base of their tail and two anal scent glands, which mix a chemical up with their waste products.

When they deposit them, that leaves an odor.

Any fox that comes in the area smells that, not only recognizes it as a fox’s odor, but they can probably tell whether it's a male or a female that left the smell, whether they were in breeding condition, and probably the exact identity of the individual that left the odor.

Why do you think the fox left its scent in this spot?

It's hard to say for sure, but being a canine, they tend to choose real obvious spots.

You know, sometimes it might be just a tuft of grass sticking out of the snow in the middle of a field.

Or it might be a real obvious rock at the edge of the forest.

Or, in this case, right here in the middle of the open, opening in the forest.

So, good obvious sign: leave the odor there, everybody knows what's happened.

So you would say that chemical communication is an effective way for animals to communicate?

Yeah.

Because when you think of most of the animal kingdom, including most mammals, their sense of smell is the most important sense they have.

And odor has some advantages, you know?

Odor works day and night.

It also can last for, you know, a few hours to a few days.

If you think about animals that don't have as good a sense of smell, like us, we communicate with our eyes and our ears, and there's other animals that do the same, communication has to be different.

Yet it can be just as effective.

You know, some of the best communicators that don't use odor are the songbirds.

Music Songbirds communicate in many different ways, but they're famous for their songs.

Songbirds have well-developed voice boxes, or syrinxes, which help them produce sounds.

Most songbirds have two different kinds of vocalizations: calls and songs.

Calls are used to warn other birds of danger, as identification, and to keep members of the flock together.

Male birds usually sing songs during the mating season to claim territory and attract mates.

Female songbirds are attracted to males that sing louder, longer, or more often than other birds of the same species.

There are more than 4000 species of songbirds in the world, and each one has its own unique song.

Young chicks learn their songs early from listening to the parent.

Bird songs are sometimes like human accents and can be different from place to place.

A male song sparrow in New England sounds just a bit different from one singing in the Midwest.

Songbirds are also known as perching birds or passerines.

They have feet with three long front toes and a long back toe that help them perch on branches and twigs.

Most songbirds have small, cone- shaped beaks adapted to cracking seeds or tweezer-like beaks for picking up insects.

Some songbirds, like the catbird and the mockingbird, can mimic other birds’ calls and songs.

The more songs they can mimic, the more likely it is they'll find a mate.

The male mockingbird likes high perches where he can sing and protect his territory.

The American robin is a songbird found throughout much of North America.

It lives in open woodlands, farms, gardens, and yards, and can often be seen hunting on lawns with its head cocked to the side, looking for food.

Robins eat fruits, berries, earthworms and insects such as beetle grubs, caterpillars, and grasshoppers.

Robins use their voices as their main form of communication.

They produce a variety of sounds from loud and sharp alarm calls to high pitched hissing sounds used to scold other animals that come too close to their territory.

Male robins may use song to attract mates, but scientists aren't sure how.

Robins are one of the first birds to begin nesting in the spring, with the males helping to gather the materials for the nest.

The nest is built by the female 5 to 15 feet above the ground in a tree or a place protected from the rain.

She uses mostly grass and lines the inside of a nest with mud, spreading it with her breast.

She adds softer material as a cushion for her eggs.

Females lay between 3 and 5 blue-green eggs and incubate them for about two weeks.

Robins have two or sometimes three broods in a season.

After the chicks hatch, the parents spend almost all of their time gathering insects and worms to feed their young.

At about two weeks, baby robins are fledged.

This means they leave the nest even though they can't fly.

The male robin continues to feed them until they can fend for themselves.

You shouldn't pick up a baby bird.

If it has feathers, it's probably a fledgling, and being out of the nest is natural.

It'll soon be able to fly on its own.

There are still many things people need to learn about songbirds.

The how and why of animal communication is still something that scientists struggle to understand.

Benjamin and Morissa are going to spend the day with Herpetologist Tom Tining, as they search for frogs and find out more about the way they communicate.

Music We're going to keep our eyes open for frogs, for some adult frogs.

Catch em.

Keep an eye on him.

Oh, nope.

There it goes.

Underneath the log.

Yes, it hopped over here somewhere.

Yeah, yeah.

Oftentimes they'll dive right underneath the leaf litter.

And so you want to just slowly scoop if you can and lift - Oh!

Lift your net up!

Guess what?

Got it!

And what do we know about frogs?

They're really slippery.

Yes.

There's a lookalike frog to this the biggest frog in North America.

Do you know what its called?

Bullfrog!

Yeah, exactly.

This is not the bullfrog.

Because bullfrogs don't have those.

This is the green frog.

That you saw.

Exactly.

And they're called green frogs because sometimes they're green.

But the sound that this thing makes is (frog noise).

What would be the reason for making a sound?

And how would it help the frog to survive?

Oh, just like birds are singing and a lot of insects make sounds, frogs are making sounds for two reasons at the same time.

What's one, would you imagine?

Try to mate?

It’s scared?

Well, they do make extra sounds, and I wasn't even thinking of those, Benjamin.

You're absolutely right, they do make sounds when they're scared.

And sometimes, I'm surprised, if they get trapped by a predator, they make incredibly loud screams and everybody in the pond hears it and dives for cover.

In this case, the singing, the particular songs that's unique to the green frogs or to the leopard frog you mentioned earlier, or to other frogs, you know, are designed so that other green frogs and other species, other individuals of the same species, know exactly who's calling.

This frog is saying, I've got a territory and it's trying to invite females.

And it's also at the same time telling other males, I've got a territory, stay out.

So just like songbirds, frogs maintain, most frogs maintain territories and they keep other males out.

And they try their best to attract females.

(green frog sounds) Could other frogs recognize certain frogs because of its coloring or marking?

Yes.

All frogs have unique markings to themselves, and they probably use color and patterns to identify each other.

Males, when they're singing, have this bright yellow throat that they lift above the water while they're vocalizing.

Females can see that color from quite a distance away.

That is clearly one way, that males and females use that visual communication to distinguish each other.

Can I let it go?

Absolutely.

Let's put it down into your net and put your hand up from the bottom and slowly bring it down to the water.

There it goes.

What have we learned today?

Communication is an adaptation that is important for animals.

Communication helps animals attract mates, scare away predators, live together, and recognize other animals in their group.

Animals communicate using smell, sound, sight, and touch.

Now you know how nature works!

Theme Music Major funding for Nature Works was provided by American Honda Foundation.

Additional funding was provided by Alice Freeman Muchnic, Alice J. Reen Charitable Trust, Cogswell Benevolent Trust, the Finisterre Fund, Greater Piscataqua Community Foundation, Morgridge Family Trust, the Natural Areas Wildlife Fund, Rawson L. Wood.

(animal sounds)