The character of Dr. Dolittle, who "walks with the animals, talks with the animals," was the central figure in an early 20th century series of children's books written by Hugh Lofting, acting as a kind of personal antidote to his trauma of experiencing the worst of humanity in the trenches of World War I. "A fox has his rights, the same as you and I have," the eponymous physician-turned-animal doctor said in one book. But Dr. Doolittle is eccentric and, of course, fiction.
Increasingly, however, talking with the animals is becoming less of a fantasy. This doesn’t just invite some fantastic conversations, but recontexualizes the rights we allot to non-human creatures. The past decade has brought a slew of new findings that are changing our understanding of animal consciousness and communication. A new study on complex communication in chimps and another about bonobos' surprising language abilities, and recent findings about how sperm whale communication works, all suggest some animals have complex communication abilities that actually resemble human language in important ways. As AI and bioacoustics, as well as other clever new techniques, bring us ever closer to talking with animals or at least listening in on their conversations — should we prepare to update the way legal systems deal with animals?
