Have you ever seen bees dancing, gorillas sticking out their tongues or horses
rubbing noses? Well, you might be surprised to learn that these are not simply things
they do to
0)
. . . . . . . . themselves or visitors at the zoo! They are actually very
important
1)
. . . . . . . . of communication. So, how exactly do animals use the
different senses in order to speak to one another?
SOUND
We’ve all enjoyed waking up to the lovely
sound of birds singing, but birds are not the only animals that
use the sense of sound to communicate. The world’s largest
mammal, the whale, for example, has a complicated repertoire
of low-frequency songs to communicate to others where they
are and where there is food, sometimes
7)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
hundreds of kilometres. In fact, all sorts of animals use sound
to speak in different ways. Elephants, for instance, trumpet in
8)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
of excitement or danger, male
grasshoppers rub their hind legs over their wings to attract
females and snakes and crocodiles hiss loudly to ward off
intruders.
Choose an animal and
find information on the ways it
communicates. You can visit this
website:
Animal_communication
Write a short text about it.
Present it to the class.
ICT
3
Listen and
read the text. Tell your partner
five things from the text that you
found particularly interesting.
Think!
0 A
present
1 A
processes
2 A
free
3 A
make
4 A
means
5 A
shake
6 A
at
7 A
over
8 A
minutes
B
perform
B
schemes
B
release
B
put
B
origin
B
shrug
B
towards
B
for
B
moments
C
enjoy
C
routes
C
transfer
C
have
C
place
C
clench
C
over
C
throughout
C
points
D
entertain
D
means
D
supply
D
do
D
source
D
tap
D
against
D
during
D
stages
2
Read the article and choose the correct word (A, B, C or D) to
complete the gaps 1‒8.
What type of text is it?
SIGHT
Many animals
3)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . wide use
of body language in order to get their message across. A
female rabbit, for example, shows the white underside of her
tail to tell her young to follow her to the safety of the burrow.
In the same way, bees perform a complicated dance to
communicate
the direction and distance of a
food
4)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , while a blowfish blows up like a balloon
to scare away predators. Meanwhile, gorillas stick out their
tongues to show anger!
horses
TOUCH
It’s not just humans that
5)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
hands when they meet – chimpanzees also greet one another
by touching hands. Other animals use the sense of touch in
order to show their feelings
6)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . one another.
To show affection, for example, elephants link their trunks
together, while horses rub noses and giraffes press their necks
together.
SMELL
The sense of smell is the most basic way in
which even the simplest of creatures (including the single-
celled amoeba!) communicate. Many animals, including
humans,
2)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . scents to attract others to them
for reproduction, to keep away predators or to attract prey,
whereas others, such as ants, leave scents to show others
where to find food. Sometimes, how these scents are detected
can be quite incredible. Snakes, for example, use their tongues
to pick up scent in the air, whereas sharks can detect blood in
the ocean about one mile away!
MODULE 1
37
1
Look at the animals in
the pictures. Which seems
to be
on the attack
?
trying to scare something
away
?
affectionate
?
playing
? What helped you
decide?
blowfish
snake
elephants
Biology
D
