“Human language appears to be a unique phenomenon without significant analogue in the animal world” - Noam Chomsky

The cold crisp winter air awakens my senses as I step outside into the morning sunshine. I breathe in the smell of firewood burning and listen to the sound of the train rumbling in the distance. The Smokey Mountain Tennessee fog lingers over the field. And as I sip my morning coffee on the deck of my cozy camper, HAPPY, I find myself thinking about the animal sounds here at the farm.

Each morning I am awakened by a musical melody of clucking hens, quacking ducks, oinking pigs, squeaking turkeys and my ultimate favorite, the hee hawing of the donkeys. I have come to realize what I learned about animal sounds as a child, applies only to a certain degree. I am sure you too are familiar with children’s books that ask, What does the chicken say? Cluck. Cluck. What does the duck say? Quack. Quack. What does the pig say? Oink.Oink.

Since farm life has not been part of my life experiences until now, I can honestly say, I never really contemplated the complexity of farm animal sounds. Of course I am quite aware of the intense sounds vocalized by my cat, Cali, with meow being just one of them. And if cats can vocalize over 100 sounds, I wonder how many sounds each farm animal can communicate? In hindsight, it now makes perfect sense that farm animals have their own plethora of sounds for communicating. While I would like to think the animals are saying: “Good morning, have a wonderful day!”  They may just be saying, “Where’s my breakfast?”.  And who knows what the animals REALLY say? 

The challenge is deciphering what the animals are trying to communicate. 

Now let’s consider all the interpretations and perspectives not only by each human interacting with the animals, but also the animals as a group and individually. I am feeling like I need to take a course, Animal Chatter 101. 

I smile thinking about the associations I have made after spending time with the animals. When the hens are gathered together clucking away, they remind me of teenage gossiping girls. When the ducks (who are always side by side) are noisily quacking, a happily married elderly couple bickering comes to mind. And when the donkeys loudly hee haw, it sounds like they are calling out for a long lost friend or love. As for the turkeys and the pigs, I am still trying to figure them out. 

As I take my final sip of my coffee, I notice the musical melody of the animals has grown quiet. 

What do you think the animals are chattering about in this video?

Written by Kim Dalton