Jay Talking | The Institute for Creation Research
Jay Talking

The brains of birds are tiny, but many contain the right programming to make them the best talkers in the animal kingdom. In addition to the parrot’s talking skill set, a new study found that Siberian jays show “complex communication.”1 Why would a “lower” order of animal have this ability?

Jays sometimes gang up on owls and hawks, their primary predators, in an activity called “mobbing.” Uppsala University research on Siberian jays, slated to appear in the Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences, investigated the specifics of how jays communicate when mobbing predators. The study found that these birds have “over 25 different vocalisations,” which combine to form “over a dozen different calls [while mobbing], some of which are specific for owls and other [sic] for hawks.”1

The university press release stated that “the only other animal species with a comparably rich vocabulary when mobbing predators are meerkats.” Study author Michael Griesser stated that his work with jays “supports the idea that the need to survive encounters with predators might have played an important role for the evolution of complex animal communication.”1

Or, it may not have. Many animals—including numerous reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals—have survived just fine without complex vocalization strategies. Thus, there was no survival-based need for mobbing vocalizations. There is not even a natural process whereby voice boxes and their neuromuscular control features and the necessary cognitive identification of particular sounds with their meanings can arise all by themselves.

If, on the other hand, certain creatures like Siberian jays were designed to make complex vocalizations in general, then they would be able to manifest their vocal talents when mobbing. Mobbing didn’t cause the development of vocalizations, but is just one activity in which jays exhibit their uniquely complex speech.

God made birds to be the best animal talkers not necessarily because they needed that ability to survive, but perhaps because it pleased Him to express His creativity in that manner.2 Then again, God may have omitted superior vocal skills from “higher” animals and given them to jays and other birds just to make it more obvious that humans, with their even greater complex communication, were specially created and are not descendants of any other animal.3

References

  1. Siberian jays use complex communication to mob predators. Uppsala University press release, June 8, 2009, reporting research published in Griesser, M. Mobbing calls signal predator category in a kin group-living bird species. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, published online before print May 27, 2009.
  2. Revelation 4:11.
  3. Romans 1:20.

* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.

Article posted on June 29, 2009.

The Latest
ACTS & FACTS
Continuous Environmental Tracking : An Engineering-Based Model...
Purpose The Institute for Creation Research is engaged in our biggest science initiative in the last two decades, and it could be our most important...

ACTS & FACTS
CET: Testing the Cavefish Model
Staff Writer Purpose The Institute for Creation Research (ICR) is testing an engineering- based model of rapid biological adaptation called...

ACTS & FACTS
Original Biochemistry in Fossils
Purpose In 1997, paleontologist Dr. Mary Schweitzer accidentally stumbled upon what appeared to be blood vessels and blood cells from a T. rex...

ACTS & FACTS
Debunking an Iconic Uniformitarian Ice Age Theory
Purpose The Milankovitch, or astronomical, theory holds that the timing of Ice Ages is controlled by slow changes in Earth’s orbital and...

ACTS & FACTS
ICR and Explaining the Ice Age
by Larry Vardiman, Ph.D., and Michael J. Oard, M.S.* Purpose There is strong geological evidence for an Ice Age, so the Institute for Creation...

ACTS & FACTS
Planetary Magnetism
Purpose In 1971, Dr. Thomas Barnes publicized a then “trade secret” of scientists studying the earth’s magnetic field, which...

ACTS & FACTS
Cosmology Research
Purpose Taking the Hebrew text of Scripture at face value without inserting gaps or revising the meanings, the universe is only about 6,000 years...

ACTS & FACTS
The Coconino Sandstone: Water, not Wind
Purpose The Coconino Sandstone is one of the most well-known formations in Grand Canyon. The blond-colored sandstone, just three layers down from...

ACTS & FACTS
Global Stratigraphy Supports a Progressive Worldwide Flood
Purpose Is there geological evidence for a global flood? Is there evidence that the waters rose and peaked on Day 150 as recorded in Genesis 8?...

ACTS & FACTS
Human-Chimp DNA Similarity Research Refutes Evolution
Purpose An oft-repeated claim of evolutionary propaganda is that the DNA of chimpanzees and humans is 98.5% identical. This high level of DNA...