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Scientists Decode Language of Prairie Dogs

by Emma Cueto

Ever wondered what prairie dogs are saying? Well, you will now. Scientists have cracked to code to ‘prairie dog language’ and the results are surprisingly expressive. It turns out the little guys' chirps don’t just announce the presence of predators, but actually describe them. When it comes to humans, researchers found they can even tell one another about the color of your clothes.

"They're able to describe the color of clothes the humans are wearing, they're able to describe the size and shape of humans, even, amazingly, whether a human once appeared with a gun," the lead researcher from North Arizona University said. “The prairie dogs will have alarm calls that contain the same description of the person's size and shape, but will vary in their description of the color."

If none of that is enough to blow your mind (seriously, guys, prairie dogs can tell each other what we’re wearing), the researcher who figured all this out says that he and his team might be able to make a translation device.

Let’s just repeat that. He thinks it is actually possible to create a device that will let humans understand what animals are saying. Mind. Blown.