Dogs name toys while elephants name each other. Animal language is more complex than we imagine | Helen Pilcher

Another day, another sweet story about how dogs can understand elements of human language and use them to communicate with us.

First up was Mr. Waffles, a Yorkshire terrier who “talks” to his owners by pressing electronic buttons that are preprogrammed with words and phrases. In one of his videoviewed more than half a million times, the pint-sized pooch stares defiantly at the camera and reacts to an empty packet of treats by pressing the “I don't give a damn” button. Next comes the “bitch” button. Bad dog, Mr. Waffles.

Then, last month, researchers reported that some dogs can mentally categorize their toys based on their use. “Fetch toys” can be distinguished from “tug of war toys” and retrieved accordingly.

I am a dog owner. I fully admit that I am one of the a third of Britons who prefer to talk to their pets than to people. On the surface, the study confirms what I already knew: my dog ​​understands everything. that's what I'm saying – but while interactions like these tell us something about how smart dogs are, they barely scratch the surface of their communication abilities.

In recent years, many parallels have been drawn between animal communication and human language. We learned, for example, that some animals have names that they call each other. Elephants use special vocalizations – harmonically rich, low-frequency sounds – to appeal to key members of your group. “Hey Dave, over here!”

In the first months of life, bottlenose dolphins invent their own unique “signature whistle“”, which later becomes the name by which others call them. During this same period, mother dolphins communicate with their calves using “maternal“Just like human mothers, they adjust the frequency and pitch of the sounds they make to create a sing-song tone that is supposed to promote bonding.

Meanwhile, songbirds different regional dialectsThis means the sparrows next to me are singing, in the bird's equivalent of a Birmingham accent, “Okay, baby!” And the sperm whales that use “names” and accents have recently been shown to have their own phonetic alphabet. Gentle giants communicate using clicks. By varying their rhythm, tempo, duration and quantity, simple units of sound can be combined to create complexity. According to the scientists who discovered this phenomenon, it is similar to the way people combine sounds into words.

Whenever these stories are revealed, they are met with surprise. “Aren't animals smart?! Who would have thought?!” But none of this should come as a surprise. All these animals live very complex, rich and social lives. Sperm whales, for example, live in close-knit groups led by womenwhich sometimes gather together to form larger groups known as “vocal clans“They hunt together, nurse each other and accompany predatory killer whales together. Of course, they have complex communication. They need it for survival.

However, the mistake is to assume – a priori – that animal communication is somehow similar to ours. Too often we try to force animal communication into a human-centered framework, but this is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. We will never solve the puzzle because there will always be a fundamental discrepancy.

Just as cuttlefish lack the subtlety of human sarcasm, humans are unlikely to ever understand the full range of cuttlefish communication. When they dynamically change the pattern and color of their skin, it's fascinating but alien. Different animals communicate in different ways. Of course they use sound, but they also use color, smell, electricity, vibrations and environment expressive dance. There are many ways in which animals communicate that we miss because we don't have the senses or the humility to detect it.

Human language – with names, words, syntax and grammar – is just one solution that one species has developed to help it cope with the problems it faces. Non-human animals live different lives, with different struggles. If we truly want to understand what animals “say,” we need to understand their communication in their terms, not ours.

Jane Goodall, who died last week at the age of 91, realized this when she spent time with chimpanzees Gombe National Park in Tanzania. Through careful observation, she discovered many previously unrecognized complexities, including the discovery that chimpanzees communicate using body language as well as sounds.

Modern ethologists rely on this. Job Kat Hobaiter from the University of St Andrews shows that chimpanzees have a rich repertoire of gestures that they use for close-up communication. They don't have “words”, but they have flexible, articulate signals that have meaning. So, when a chimpanzee makes a loud, long, slow scratching noise, he may means “court me” but can also mean “let's travel”. And while they may not have specific gestures or calls for different types of food, such as figs or seeds, they may not need them. What humans and chimpanzees consider useful information differs.

So, instead of marveling at dogs' ability to push verbal buttons, take a moment to marvel at how dogs communicate with dogs. When my dog ​​sees his best friend, his arthritic limbs become cheerful and happy for a while. There's playful bowing, tail wagging, and butt sniffing. It may not be a Shakespearean sonnet, but it is expressive and beautiful in its own way.

• Helen Pilcher is a science writer and the author of Bring Back the King: The New Science of Resurrection. To support the Guardian, order a copy online Guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply