Studying Animal Languages Without Translation: An Insight from Ants

Prof. Dr. Zhanna Reznikova, Novosibirsk State University, Russia Prof. Dr. Boris Ryabko, Novosibirsk State University, Russia

• Communication, speech and language in human- and non-human animals.  The complexity of communication systems and intelligence in animals.- Intelligent communication: can animals exchange meaningful messages?.- Cracking animals codes.- Direct dialogs with animals by means of intermediary languages.- Ants and Bits.- Why bits? Information Theory as a tool for studying natural communication systems.- Why ants? Reliable agents for information transmission.-  Ants on the Binary Tree.- The entropy – based approach.- The Kolmogorov Complexity-based approach.- Ants can compress information.- Numerical competence in animals with an insight from ant “language”.- Criteria of numerical competence for comparative studies.- Quantitative judgments in animals.- Advanced numerical abilities.- Information Theory as a tool for studying wild arithmetic on the base of their own communications.- An insight from ant “language”: flexibility of communication as a basis for arithmetic skills.

“This short book, which summarizes the work of Reznikova and colleagues since 1979, will be of use to theorists and practitioners. … we have a collection of experiments undertaken over several decades, bundled with an argument in favor of an unorthodox approach to animal communication.” (Stephen Frances Mann, The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 93 (1), March, 2018)