Barking in Other Animals
Many animals communicate via various vocalizations. While there is not a precise, consistent and functional acoustic definition for barking, researchers may classify barks according to several criteria. University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers identified volume, pitch, tonality, noise, abrupt onset and pulse duration are amongst the criteria that can be used to define a bark.
Besides dogs and wolves, other canines like coyotes and jackals can bark. Their barks are quite similar to those of wolves and dogs. The bark of a dingo is short and monosyllabic.
The warning bark of a fox sounds much like a dog's, but generally the vocalisation of foxes is higher and more drawn out than barks of other canids.
There are also non-canine species with vocalizations that could be described as barking. Because the Muntjac's alarm call resembles a dog's bark, they are sometimes known as Barking Deer. Eared seals are also known to bark. Prairie dogs employ a complex form of communication that involves barks and rhythmic chirps. A wide variety of bird species produce vocalizations that include the canonical features of barking, especially when avoiding predators. Some primate species, notably gorillas, can and do vocalize in short barks.
Read more about this topic: Bark (sound)
Famous quotes containing the words barking and/or animals:
“A leaky faucet, a barking dog—those are things you tolerate.”
—Candace Gingrich (b. c. 1967)
“There is no instant of time when one creature is not being devoured by another. Over all these numerous races of animals man is placed, and his destructive hand spares nothing that lives. He kills to obtain food and he kills to clothe himself; he kills to adorn himself; he kills in order to attack and he kills to defend himself; he kills to instruct himself and he kills to amuse himself; he kills to kill. Proud and terrible king, he wants everything and nothing resists him.”
—Joseph De Maistre (1753–1821)