Language of Prairie Dogs Includes Words for Humans
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ Prairie dogs, those little pups popping in and out of holes on vacant lots and rural rangeland, are talking up a storm. They have different "words'' for tall human in yellow shirt, short human in green shirt, coyote, deer, red-tailed hawk and many other creatures.
They can even coin new terms for things they've never seen before, independently coming up with the same calls or words, according to Con Slobodchikoff, a Northern Arizona University biology professor and prairie dog linguist.
Prairie dog linguist????? Suddenly, I'm no longer so grumpy. I've aspired to be some pretty silly things in life. Hell, I've been some pretty silly things in life (still trying to find a word for someone who gets arrested and searched - brutally - several times a day; it's not 'prisoner', because they only get arrested once and 'victim' isn't precise enough), but prairie dog linguist was never one of them. In fact, I'm ashamed to admit that the idea never even occurred to me.
Update: I've spent the morning thinking about the implications of talking prairie dogs and I'm finding them to be more and more disturbing. They're smart enough to coin new terms? Now that they have language the next thing ya know they'll be doing long term planning - plotting. Just think of organized prairie dog armies sneaking around in their tunnel systems right under our feet! Perhaps it's good that we have a prairie dog linguist around. Maybe the army will start a prairie dog language program at DLI and then deploy the platoon to Iraq into a prairie dog free region. Not that that would be anything like training a Korean linguist for two years and then sending her to Afghanistan, oh no no no. Sheesh, and we think illegal immigrants are a threat!
5 comments:
Join the crowd... :>)
Before you know it, they'll be singing Tom Waits's "Underground" in a multitude of high-pitched voices. Time to stock up on .17 rimfire.
32C5R09OW8
ftssoldier.blogspot.com
www.edwardsaid.org
Me again, I just read your piece on Osama bin Laden being in Pakistan, yes it makes a right mockery of your military service in Afghanistan, but what do you expect from government that occupies an country in an unproked attack, expresses intentions to use nuclear weapons against an other country, normalizes torture etc.
(Dick Cheney planned to drop a mini-nuke on iran if America had another 9-11 and that was before semour M. hersh broke the second nuke iran in the new Yorker.)
Should you visit Ireland this summer
Here is a hyperlink to a guy you should support . Brain haw has been opposing the war in iraq since 1990, but only started protest against it in 21 june 2000.
His protest is now been threatened with legal action
I met brain haw outside Westminster in may this year. (I read economist)
Just a tought
www.counterpunch.org/holt02042006.html
Are there prairie dogs in Iraq? If not, suggest to the DOD that they send some of those instead of you.
In Midland, one of the many-places-in-Texas-Where-I-have-lived, there was a prarie dog specialist, who spent his entire day studying a field of prairie dogs outside of Midland Community College.
In Lubbock, another one of the many-places-in-Texas-Where-I-have-lived, there is an actual prairie dog town. A little protective enclave for the critters. I took a friend from NYC there, and she about bust a gut laughing. "They're vermin!" she said. "Vermin! Imagine if they were to set up a 'Rat Town' in the South Bronx?"
Even worse, there was a guy who would spend his afternoons there with his camera set up on a tripod. He did not attempt to aim the camera. He would just stare through the view finder and wait for something to happen in the field of view. He told a friend and me about it about at a camera store. To our credit, we managed not to laugh until we were out of the store.
Maybe prairie dogs can be our new intelligence agents! After all, who would suspect an unsuspecting little praire dog of spying? Then, a PDL (prairie dog linguist) could debrief them!
I read the same article and found it fascinating. Who'd a thunk it?
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