Would it be possible for humans to communicate with wolves through howling? originally appeared on Quora –the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights.
Answer by Holly Root-Gutteridge, who did a Ph.D in wolf howls, on Quora:
I co-authored a paper on this subject: Disentangling canid howls across multiple species and subspecies: Structure in a complex communication channel. Essentially we were looking at whether howls are different between different canid species. We were expecting differences based on our own knowledge of wolf howls and research done into other taxa so we weren’t surprised to find them.
What we weren’t trying to do was to talk to the wolves. We were looking purely at whether their howls are different, like comparing the accents of humans across the world and seeing whether there are similarities or differences in how they speak selected syllables.
What would be great is to talk to the wolves through howling and we know that they may have a number of different howl types that they use and that these may be different between different motivational states, so a howl to call a pack member may sound different to one used to scare off another pack.
If you howl at a wolf, and they feel like responding, they may join in. (I’ve done it in the wild and in captivity and it’s huge fun, although they prefer my husband’s howl.) Are you communicating with it in any true sense? No, probably not. You have no idea what they’re saying and you are just mimicking their sound without knowledge of whether you’re getting it right. It’s equivalent to someone singing along with ‘Lady Marmalade’ up until they get to the French part and then mangling it from ‘Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir’ to ‘vu-les-vu coo-shay ahh-vic me’. From French to nonsense in one go.
Is it something we hope to be able to do in the future? YES! That would be incredible, to work out what they’re saying and which parts matter, but we’re a long way from that.
One day I hope to know that when I howl at the wolves, I’m saying “Do you want to play with me tonight?” rather than “Mites grass ears feet run!” or whatever I’m babbling at them. For now, they put up with my nonsense noises and I get to listen to their beautiful singing.
Source: Can Humans Communicate With Wolves Through Howling? – Forbe
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