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Start the Week: Animal communication

Animal communication

BBC Radio 4 - Start the Week, Animal communication

Tom Sutcliffe with Martin Wikelski, Kapka Kassabova and Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas

Martin Wikelski, Kapka Kassabova and Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas discuss the communication and rhythms of the animal world, with Tom Sutcliffe

How do animals detect natural disasters before they happen? Martin Wikelski, Director of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour at the University of Konstanz argues they have a ‘sixth sense’ that humans are only just beginning to understand. In his book, The Internet of Animals, he reveals the extraordinary network of information gathered by tagging and tracking thousands of animals across the world.

At the University of Glasgow researchers have been looking at how technology can be used to help animals communicate with each other. Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas explored the potential of video-calling to reduce loneliness in parrots and found that the sociable birds preferred the live interaction to pre-recorded videos. 

The traditional rhythms of a pastoral life are at the heart of Kapka Kassabova’s new book, Anima. In the mountainous region of Bulgaria, she follows the ‘pastiri’ people, the shepherds struggling to hold onto an ancient way of life, and their relationship with the oldest surviving breeds of sheep and goats, and their legendary breed of dog, the Karakachan.

Producer: Katy Hickman

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