Can Animals Learn Other Animals’ Languages? 

Animals do not actually use language, as we humans think of it. Language is human-specific. However, animals communicate within their own species as well as with other species. For example, elephants greet one another by flapping their ears and rumbling, sperm whales change their clicking noises based upon who they communicate with, and we all know that our dogs and cats communicate with us quite well!

By using their hearing, animals can learn to understand and mimic vocalizations or signals from other species. The most studied animals are birds, and one recent study demonstrated that during migration, some songbirds understood the calls of other bird species, perhaps helping them stay sage and navigate the journey (Van Doren et al, 2025).

An even better example is the African drongo, a small black bird. These birds use alarm calls to indicate a predator is approaching to trick other animals into hiding so they can steal their food. However, other species are quick to pick up on the ruse and will stop dropping their food to hide. The drongos’ response?  They learn to replicate the distress calls of the other animals! Drongos can mimic the distress calls of many other birds and mammals and, therefore, have plenty of food available. (Flower, 2011).

So, are your animals communicating with one another and with you?  More than likely, so be careful what you say. 

References

Flower T. (2011) Fork-tailed drongos use deceptive mimicked alarm calls to steal food. Proceedings of the Royal Society B (278) 1548–1555.

Perkins M. (2025) Can animals learn another species’ ‘language?’ Live Science.

Van Doren BM, DeSimone JG, Firth, JA, Hillemann F, Gayk Z, Farnsworth A. (2025) Social associations across species during nocturnal bird migration. Current Biology 35(4), 898 – 904.