More on Animal Languages

I've blogged before about my interest in languages and the science of Linguistics.

Did you know that many animals, birds, and even insects have their own languages?

Bees communicate with others in their hives about the location of good nectar by doing a sort of dance.

Books have been written about the ways horses and dogs communicate. I have a story in the Chicken Soup for the Soul book, I Can't Believe My Dog Did That about a dog we had who learned to understand American Sign Language and taught us about 30 dog signs.

All the signs our dog used, and intonation patterns she couldn't use because she was deaf are mentioned in Stanley Coren's book, How to Speak Dog. I've told so many people about that book he should pay me a commission. ;-)

But now I wish I could learn to communicate with a squirrel.

I like squirrels and years ago tamed one to sit on my lap and let me pet it while it ate out of my hand. That wasn't wise because it started coming into the house and climbing my leg with its sharp nails when it wanted to be fed.

Now a squirrel keeps chewing on the metal corner of the leaf guard on my roof gutter. The noise is irritating and I don't know why the squirrel chews on metal, but I can't seem to make it stop doing that.

If anyone knows how I can tell the squirrel to stop, I could use an interpreter.