Naked mole-rats: bizarre rodents speak in dialects unique to their colony

By Matthew James Mason, University Physiologist, University of Cambridge

There are over 100 words for the noise a dog makes, in more than 60 languages, according to the work of psychologist Stanley Coren. These range from “ouah-ouah” in France to others less recognisable to English speakers, such as “hong-hong”, apparently, in Thailand. Of course, these differences only reflect the languages of the countries in question, and are nothing to do with the animals themselves.

What’s less widely recognised is that genuine differences…

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