Animal communication and cognition: echolocation in bats as a case-study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4396/2025SFL02Keywords:
nonhuman communication, echolocation, bats, cognitive ethology, animal communication accountsAbstract
Cognitive ethology studies animal cognition from a comparative, neo-Darwinian perspective. Empirical research on animal behaviour conducted within this field provides the opportunity to re-think the mind and its role in communication in terms of evolutionary continuity. Echolocation is a behaviour used by some animal species, such as bats and dolphins, to navigate in their environment through emission and refraction of sound waves. Since its discovery in the 1940s, it has raised interesting theoretical questions about the different modalities by which non-human organisms experience the world. More recently, empirical evidence on the social role of echolocation in bats has led to the hypothesis that it has a communicative function, in addition to the perceptual one (detecting food and avoiding obstacles). This paper will analyse whether this phenomenon fulfils the criteria for being communicative according to the three most influential frameworks used in the scientific literature – biological, informational and intentional. Through this analysis, some theoretical andvantages and limitations of the three models of animal communication will be highlighted. Finally, some reflections will be made regarding the philosophical and linguistic challenges a completely different way of making sense of the world poses to a traditional understanding of communication.
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