[Jacob-list] Animal Lingo

[Susan J Martin]

Mary, you put it so well.    Sadly, many people just do not take the time
or perhaps they live in a non-animal environment to know about "animal
speech."  I  have always really enjoyed listening to the animal world as
they speak to their little ones........mother cats have a very tender
trill that they use to call their kittens to come and nurse and get their
baths, and that same mother cat will use a little warning growl as she is
weaning her kittens to tell them they do not need to be nursing and
should bug off.  Jacob ewes  have all kinds of wonderful language with
their lambs -- the nervous knicker of a first time mom, the relaxed
knicker that says, "hey lambie, here I am", or the urgent knicker that
says "danger, get by my side and don't move" are just a few.  We have had
robin nests near the house and always knew exactly when each little egg
hatched because the parent bird was singing his heart out to the world as
he announced his new baby.  The bluebirds do the same thing -- they are
quietly incubating their eggs for days, and then one day they are filled
with song and sure enough, when I peek in the box there is a tiny little
pink fledgling.  Hens with chicks also have a vocabulary which starts as
they are sitting on the eggs.  A normally docile, friendly hen who
decides to become broody becomes a formidable foe -- as you near her nest
she fluffs her feathers to twice her normal size and she emits a sound
that in chicken talk clearly is a warning to not come any nearer....and a
sound never used at any other time.   After her chicks hatch she too has
sounds that indicate affection, danger, lets go this way, etc.  And,
those of you with goats I'm sure can discuss the varied language they
have -- right now our little Daisy May is in heat (and not happy about it
because there are no intact male goats here) and she is talking about it
- a rather gutteral sound totally unlike her normal sounds.  The two
Jacob rams in the meadow next to Daisy are quite aware of her condition
and they are talking too -- making all sorts of grunts and gutteral
responses -- not to mention that they are also battering down the fence
and fighting each other in an attempt to impress little Daisy May!!!!

A local dairy farmer told me of a time he was cutting alfalfa with
machinery that takes in the alfalfa and spews it out the back.  Sadly, a
little fawn was hiding in the alfalfa and before he could stop,  the
little fawn had gone through the equipment and was killed.  He said the
mother deer stood at the edge of the field and literally cried at the top
of her lungs -- and the farmer said he will never forget that sound and
he felt terrible about what happened......and as he talked about it his
eyes misted up a bit.

God created the beasts of the field and the birds and fish before He
created man -- and certainly the Bible says man is created in God's image
and man has a soul -- but we need to always remember that  the wonderful
creatures around us are also God's creatures and He has placed them in
our care.  

Sue Martin
Stonecroft Manor
Lititz, PA

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