It turns out that birds, whales, and humans may have something in common — mathematics. The vocal signals of animals are organized according to certain patterns that can also be found in human speech.
Of course, this does not mean that whales are learning human speech, or that birds are secretly picking up new words. The similarity lies elsewhere: sound elements repeat at specific frequencies, some combinations occur more often than others, and short sequences form more complex ones. In simpler terms, researchers are looking not so much at what sounds are made, but at how those sounds are organized.
This matters to science because human language has long been considered a special system with a complex internal structure. Now there is an opportunity to look for shared principles across different forms of communication and compare them using mathematical methods. If such patterns are confirmed in other species, scientists will have a new way to study animal communication.
It seems mathematics can listen. And birds and whales, apparently, have already told it a thing or two.
