Russian Scientists Learn to Speak 'Dog'

February 1, 2001 Moscow, USSR

It still may be a while before they publish the first Russian-Dog dictionary, but researchers at the Moscow Zoo believe that they have translated several sounds of the Dhole, an endangered wild dog that inhabits the mountainous regions from Southern Siberia to India.

This particular species of dog has been extremely elusive and rarely encountered by humans, which makes these findings all the more significant.  The language, now known as "dholish", scientists say consists of at least 11 basic sounds, ranging from a grumble to a "biphonic yap-squeak".  Biphonic sounds are those that appear to resonate two distinct voices at once.

Dholish seems to be a highly dynamic language; the meaning of the sound depends upon the speaker's age, social status, health and living environment.  "For example", explains researcher Ilya Volodin, "a dhole male will cry a whistling call if a female is separated because of problems with her health. This same call is produced by dhole parents and young who have become separated."

Also, the same yap used by an adult dhole to recognize its father's elder status, according to researcher Elena Volodina is the same call that infant dholes use to say, "I'm hungry! Regurgitate me some food!"

These findings were based on observations and spectrograms of the conversations of nine captive dholes in the Moscow Zoo.  The full report has been accepted for publication in the Russian Zoological Journal.

Related articles:
Scientists Record Dogs Laughing
(August 1, 2001)
Hi-Tech Gadged Reads Dogs' Minds
(August 17, 2001)

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