King Soloman's Ring - now thats precious.

[Owl-Light]

Legend has it that King Soloman had a magic ring which enabled him to speak to the animals in their own language. Its also the title of one of my favourite books by Konrad Lorenz, the Austrian zoologist, animal psychologist, and ornithologist.

From Wikipedia: "The book's title refers to the legendary Seal of Solomon, a ring that supposedly gave King Solomon the power to speak to animals. Lorenz claims, with only a little exaggeration, that he likewise achieved this feat of communication with several species. He accomplished this by raising them in and around his home and observing their behavior. King Solomon's Ring describes the methods of his investigation, and his resulting findings about animal psychology." Read on...

I'm fasinated by the subject of animal/human communication and would love to hear of any experiences you may have had especially with habituated British Wildlife.

No no one is saying you can sit down and have an intelectual conversation with another species but we can learn to understand eachothers methods of communication and to some extent learn to understand vocalisations, signs, signals and body language. We all love British Wildlife but how well do we really know them all?

A quick example from the TV series Roar at Howletts and Port Lympne animal parks, I've been watching. Keepers all say they talk to their animals. Tigers for instance greet those they accept with a rapid pfff-pfff-pfff sound known as chuffing. Its Tiger etiquette. If you don't respond in kind they think your being rude or don't want any interaction with them.

Lets keep any responses UK based in keeping with the WAB focus. Looking forward to hearing your experiences

[Jonny]

I have always enjoyed doing impressions and I nearly always have a chat with the birdies as I walk round the reserve, but I think I tend to wind up most of them, I try to imitate the bird song that I hear and often get a good conversation going, but they are probably telling me to clear off ???............

[Owl-Light]

Originally Posted by Jonny

I have always enjoyed doing impressions and I nearly always have a chat with the birdies as I walk round the reserve, but I think I tend to wind up most of them, I try to imitate the bird song that I hear and often get a good conversation going, but they are probably telling me to clear off ???............

You can't always know what you're saying but you're communicating. If you're good at it they might hear you as a rival in their territory. If you learn the female call and respond to the male or vice versa you might get an interesting encounter.

Cool emoticon by the way

[Jonny]

Originally Posted by Sheryl LaBouchardiere

You can't always know what you're saying but you're communicating. If you're good at it they might hear you as a rival in their territory. If you learn the female call and respond to the male or vice versa you might get an interesting encounter.

Cool emoticon by the way

Might be embarrassing as well........

[Earth Hart]

When I lived in Parbrook, anold dog fox used to walk down the road with me, he on one side me on t'other, we would acknowledge eachother him yapping quietly & me following suite until one of us broke away & then there was 'a good bye nod' .

In the same area, two badgers got to know me & individually they would greet me if they met me in the woods. One would come up and have a sniff, lay down & stretch out to have his back groomed. I called him Ramsoms, as he stank of it. He freaked out Beithe one night, when he came & rolled over her shoes, she was wearing them at the time

At the moment I'm playing around with some threads for a "Ramsoms" yarn.

[Owl-Light]

Lovely encounters, you are lucky.

[speckled wood]

A memory I have is of standing by a wall at Chalford in Gloucestershire and of a female mallard flying up from a nearby pool. I offered her some crumbs but she was not interested, she simply wanted to be stroked and petted and got quite upset when I eventually made leave and walked away.

[Owl-Light]

Originally Posted by speckled wood

A memory I have is of standing by a wall at Chalford in Gloucestershire and of a female mallard flying up from a nearby pool. I offered her some crumbs but she was not interested, she simply wanted to be stroked and petted and got quite upset when I eventually made leave and walked away.

How surpising for a wild bird. I wonder if she was hand raised? Though sometimes I think wild animals can be as curious about us as we are of them. What treat to get so close

[speckled wood]

I suspect that she must have been hand raised, certainly very trusting of humans.