Without words

Animals cannot speak and have developed non-verbal ways of expressing themselves. Some of these signals we can use ourselves: we cannot wag our tails to indicate pleasure, and it is not considered proper to express contempt in the way that dogs do (there is a Winston Churchill anecdote about that), but we can if we want threaten an attacker with a snarl, or disarm him by licking his nose and purring. There are others we might usefully adopt:


The orang-utans of Suaq say goodnight to their families by blowing a loud raspberry noise, often amplified by cupping hands.