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Reading Response

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Reading Response #1
1) Discuss any two of the animal communication systems mentioned in the Kemp & Smith chapter. For each, provide examples of two design features, discussed and described in the Ohio State chapter that the systems either do or do not exhibit. Be explicit about how these systems illustrate these features.
In 1944, von Frisch began exploring an insect communication system called, “the dance of the honeybee”. Bees does the “waggle dance” to communicate the source of food to rest of the hive and to convey how far the food source is from the hive. This insect communication system definitely exhibits interchangeability and discreteness. The honeybees exhibit the feature of interchangeability because each bee can both send messages and comprehend the messages of the other bees. The bees send messages of where the food source is by dancing and the other comprehend the messages of the dancing bees to understand the location of a rich food source. Obviously, they have the ability to both send and receive messages. The honeybees also exhibit the feature of discreteness. The waggle dance of the honeybees itself is a large, complex message and it can be broken down into smaller, discrete components. For example, this dance not only conveys where the food source is, it can be broken down into different dances to convey different messages (its richness and type of food available) to the rest of the hive. Not all honeybees use the exact same set of dance to communicate; different honeybees set different tempo and different angle to convey different distances and direction of the food source. Another animal communication system is the song of the humpback whales. This system definitely exhibits cultural transmission. During the breeding season, the male whales do the singing and the others learned the whale song. The other whales definitely learn the song that is

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