Animal Language
Some people say that human beings are the only animals that have language．Is this true? It is a very difficult question to answer．A person must have a good definition of 'language'．Different kinds of animals must be studied．Some animals certainly seem to have a communication system．That system may or may not be a language．For example, the bee has ways of telling other bees about food．The dolphin, a kind of fish, has ways of giving information to others．The monkey, an animal that is similar to humans in many ways, can use a human language system．Does this mean animals have language? We will study each of these animals to try to answer this question.
BEES
Bees do two kinds of dances to tell other bees of their discovery of food．First, there is a round dance．In this dance, the bee moves in a circle inside the hive(蜂房)．The round dance is used when food is close by．The food must not be more than ten meters away．If a bee comes back and does a round dance, other bees know they must go out and look nearby for food．The bees also smell the bee that has found the food．The smell tells them what kind of flower to look for．After watching the round dance and smelling the bee that has found the food, the other bees can find the food source.
A second kind of dance done by the bees is a tail-wagging dance．In this dance, the bee wiggles the end of its body as it moves in a straight line．The tail-wagging dance is used when the food is more than ton meters away．The bees know from the speed of the tail-wagging dance just how far away the food source is．The line the bee dances on shows the direction that the bees must fly in to find the food．In the tail-wagging dance, the bees also smell the bee that has found the food．The smell tells them what kind of flower to look for．After watching the tail-wagging dance and smelling the bee that has found the food, the other bees know three things．They know how far to fly, what direction to fly in, and what kinds of flowers to look for.
The bees' communication system is extremely interesting．Each bee can tell all the other bees where to look for food．The bees can also toll one another if the food is especially good and how much of it there is．Karl von Frisch did an experiment with bees．He put a food source very high above the bee hive, and put a bee into the food．The bee returned to the hive and did the round dance, but none of the other bees could find the food．This suggests that bees do not really have a language．One bee could not tell the other bees the height of the food．One bee could not communicate this new information to the others.
DOLPINS
Dolphins, like bees, have been studied to see if they have a language．Although scientists have not studied the dolphin as carefully as they have studied the bee, they have made interesting discoveries．Many observations have been made．A few experiments with dolphins have been done．The dolphin has been studied because its general behavior．is much like that of humans．For communication, however, the dolphin's system is much more limited than a person's．The dolphin has three kinds of calls or noises to tell other dolphins about food, er, or other things.
MONKEYS
Monkey Viki
It seems that bees and dolphins communicate, but that they do not have language．It is much more difficult to decide whether monkeys have language．Monkeys are very intelt and similar to humans．Because of this similarity, some scientists in the late 1940's tried to teach a monkey named Viki to talk．After a year, Viki could only say a few words．Part of the problem with this experiment is that monkeys do not have the same kind of mouth and throat as humans．They are not really able to make human speech sounds．As a result, the experiment with Viki did not work well.
Monkey Washoe
In the mid-1960s,