BIONB 4260

Animal Communication

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

Communication is the glue that holds societies together. This course examines how and why animals communicate. Topics include the role of the environment in shaping animal signals, whether animals tell the truth to each other, why some bird songs are simple and others complex, and what kinds of signals might be exchanged between species.

Prerequisites BIONB 2210.

Distribution Requirements (BSC-AG, OPHLS-AG), (BIO-AS)

Last 4 Terms Offered 2024SP, 2022SP, 2020SP, 2018SP

Learning Outcomes

• Demonstrate mastery of the core principles of animal communication.
• Discuss and explain methodological approaches to studying communication.
• Describe the mechanistic bases of communication systems, and the function and evolution of animal signals.
• Formulate hypotheses, predictions and tests in order to investigate active research questions in the field of animal communication.
• Apply bioacoustic methods to analyze one key modality of communication, acoustic signals.

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