Wolves Howl In Different 'Dialects,' Machine Learning Finds (vice.com) 50
derekmead writes: Differentiating wolf howls with human ears can prove tricky, so researchers have turned to computer algorithms to suss out if different wolf species howl differently. They think that understanding wolf howls could help improve wolf conservation and management programs. In a study published in the journal Behavioural Processes, a group of international researchers describe using machine learning for the first time to analyze 2,000 wolf howls gathered from both wild and domesticated wolves and their subspecies from around the world.
Woo guy (Score:1)
Re: Suss out? (Score:3)
Dude, don't lump me in with him. I think most of us Americans know what suss out means.
Re: (Score:3)
And if we don't, we'll suss it out eventually.
Re: (Score:1)
Suss you and the horse you rode in on!
Re: (Score:2)
While we're at it, let's not forget the contributions to the English language that come from The Great White North:
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~steffa... [cmu.edu]
http://geekmom.com/2013/12/55-... [geekmom.com]
http://mentalfloss.com/article... [mentalfloss.com]
http://www.americansguide.ca/i... [americansguide.ca]
http://www.craigmarlatt.com/ca... [craigmarlatt.com]
That's enough for now. Note in particular that Canadians can say "homo milk" without giggling.
Awwoooooooooo... (Score:1)
...kiecrisp.
A Joke (Score:2)
What did the Eastern Timber Wolf say to the Great Plains Wolf? "You have the worst accent..."
Re: (Score:2)
It's a good thing your subject line wasn't A Good Joke...
Important Stuff (for the discussion) (Score:1, Informative)
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Re: (Score:2)
it's not what is said (Score:5, Funny)
rfc1149 (Score:2)
Counter-intelligence.
Assemble a predatory army to intercept airborne enemy communications.
If only (Score:2)
2) the poster sent us to a non-firewalled version of the story, which the authors can do but apparently haven't. (Grr. Elsevier)
Re: (Score:2)
I have seen that behavior in a Lab/GSD mix, with her daughter laying next to her looking quite attentive as if being told a story.
As a funny side note, said daughter actually had some husky mixed in, yet she never did it.
Re: (Score:2)
... and by the way, do dogs howl in different languages?
Probably; it's pretty easy to pick out differences in intonation/cadence/etc. if you've ever heard two different breeds of dog try to howl at the same time. Of course, then there's 'husky bitching', which as far as I've seen is unique to that breed. At least, I have yet to encounter another breed of dog that will sit down and start grumble-barking a soliloquy for no apparent reason and for minutes on end...
I have seen Boxers do that too. In that case, apparently to complain or express displeasure.
Re: (Score:1)
Probably; it's pretty easy to pick out differences in intonation/cadence/etc. if you've ever heard two different breeds of dog try to howl at the same time. Of course, then there's 'husky bitching', which as far as I've seen is unique to that breed. At least, I have yet to encounter another breed of dog that will sit down and start grumble-barking a soliloquy for no apparent reason and for minutes on end...
This was the best husky howl I could find on youstube, and it's not that good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Dogs really enjoy howling. I used to have a bunch of strays, and I lived near a fire station. When the truck would pass by with the sirens blaring, the dogs would all respond, and they loved it! I'm guessing there's an instinctive enjoyment in communication activity. Maybe it's something like human singing.
I played this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] for the 2 mutts currently in my charge
Re:If only (Score:4, Interesting)
We have known for a while that other animals have regional accents. Dogs can only make a small number of different vocalizations, but cats can make over 100. Sure enough, cats have regional accents.
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We have known for a while that other animals have regional accents.
That's right. In Europe, cows say "shazoo."
Re: (Score:2)
I suspect they do.
The only evidence I have is anecdotal but hear me out:
I love cat videos (yes, yes, I know, very original) and I've watched hundreds.
One thing I noticed was that cats that came from asia tended to have strange-sounding (to my ears) meows.
Researchers (not sourced, sorry) have discovered that cats meow not for each other but rather as an attempt to communicate with humans.
Might cats adapt their meows regionally to maximize their effect with the folks they'r
Well, duh (Score:2)
If we knew what they were trying to communicate, we'd probably find they have different languages too. Same as with people, without long distance travel/communication there's no reason to believe they'd share a language. We've seen this both on the macro scale through colonization wiping out many local languages and on the micro scale through building bridges to islands, linguists found that dialects became much less distinct. And with mass media and the Internet I'm sure we're converging even stronger now.
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It's not hard to determine what wolves are trying to say. After watching this wild life documentary, I'm pretty sure I can speak wolf.
https://youtu.be/lVN1Apz45AE [youtu.be]
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If we knew what they were trying to communicate, we'd probably find they have different languages too.
The news here is how far Machine learning has progressed. They didn't find anything that wasn't already known by biologists.
When scientists expand into a field they aren't familiar with it's a bit like watching a c
more specifically, a clustering algorithm (Score:3)
I guess anything but trivial clustering algorithms are "machine learning", but rather than "using machine learning" it'd be more straightforward to describe them as having "applied a clustering algorithm" to see if calls can be grouped into, well, different clusters. That is an idea that's been floating around biology now and then, with a lot of work on clustering bird calls especially.
Oblig. Far Side (Score:3)
Gary Larson predicted [imgur.com] this.
Aroooooooooo! (Score:2)
Aroooooooooooooo! Arooooooooooo!
In other news... (Score:1)
Unsupervised Learning (Score:2)
Coming to CBS - SeaQuest, but with wolves! (Score:2)
Time to rehash an old show and re-center it around a plucky, but mildly introverted, genius kid who is developing the tech to talk to wolves while the rest of the crew engage in zany adventures sailing the Great Plains in their steam punk land submarine.