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If an animal could speak, would we listen?
A prize aimed at cracking inter-species communication presents a moral challenge: It compels us to reconsider our thinking on animal welfare.
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It is hard to see how researchers can succeed without deception, though this trickery is bound to raise hackles.
PHOTO: PETER MARSHALL
Anjana Ahuja
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Mention Dr Dolittle, and it is impossible not to hum the film’s Oscar-winning ditty written by Leslie Bricusse and sung by Rex Harrison: “Think what it would mean if I could talk to the animals, just imagine it/Chatting to a chimp in chimpanzee/Imagine talking to a tiger, chatting to a cheetah/What a neat achievement that would be.”
The famed, fictional naturalist has now inspired a lucrative science prize aimed at cracking the challenge of inter-species communication. Last week, an inaugural US$100,000 (S$129,000) went to a US team studying dolphin whistles.
