'A rich compendium of incidents, anecdotes and studies illustrating the linguistic abilities of animals . . .

a rewarding book' Sunday TimesDolphins and parrots call each other by their names. Fork tailed drongos mimic the calls of other animals to scare them away and then steal their dinner. In the songs of many species of birds, and in skin patterns of squid, we find grammatical structures .

. . If you are lucky, you might meet an animal that wants to talk to you.

If you are even luckier, y...