Every day, humans express themselves in a myriad of weird and wonderful ways. Our body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice all convey some form of meaning. From a subtly raised eyebrow to a sharp rejoinder, these signals dominate our every social interaction.

While we are intimately familiar with our own methods of communication, the rest of the animal kingdom has a few surprises up its sleeve.

Nature has conjured an amazingly diverse range of communication strategies. For example, some insects use chemical signaling to create trails. New-world monkeys wash themselves in their own urine to attract mates. And meerkats use auditory calls to warn each other about dangerous predators.

These messages are part of a fascinating evolutionary arms race. Animals on the bottom rung of the food chain may send bogus messages to confuse eavesdropping predators. Other times, a predatory animal will broadcast deceptive signals, luring its prey into a brutal death trap.

As this list reveals, having an effective communication strategy can be the difference between life and death. To quote the English poet Alfred Tennyson: “Nature, red in tooth and claw.”

10 Deaf Moths Click Their Wings

Many insect eaters feast on a nutritious diet of mosquitoes and moths. But several species of moth are starting to fight back. Curiously, the Yponomeuta moth “talks” its way out of trouble.

The deaf creature’s wings are packed with sound-producing structures called tymbals. As the critter beats its delicate wings, these translucent structures twist and turn. This buckling triggers a series of ultrasonic clicks that its nemesis, the predatory bat, detects via echolocation.

But what do these signals do?

While some moths produce ultrasound to acoustically “jam” a bat’s sonar capabilities, the Yponomeuta has its own cunning trick. They mimic the clicking noises of the more toxic tiger moths. Over time, the bats associated these clicks with poisonous moths and so learned to avoid them.^[1]

Some grass moths whisper “ultrasonic courtship songs” to serenade potential mates. As part of the species’ survival strategy, the males can only beam these sounds over a very short distance. Too much excitement and the moth could end up as bat food.

9 Tree-Cuddling, Urine-Spraying Bears

Bears have a strange way of making themselves known. These solitary creatures are often seen rubbing their backs against trees, almost as if they have an interminable itch. By the end of this display, the tree is peppered in the creature’s thick fur. The scratches, bite marks, and oozing tree sap send a clear message to other bears in the region: “This is my territory.”

Brown bears use a range of chemical signals to mark territory and assert their dominance. For example, anal gland secretions and urine are commonly sprayed across the local flora. Bears have an astonishing sense of smell, so these chemical signposts are easily detected.

Large brown bears use the trees to send messages about their status in the hierarchy. Subordinate bears then decode these messages to avoid potentially deadly confrontations with dominant bears. According to biologist and bear researcher Melanie Clapham, “rub trees” ensure that bears at every level of the hierarchy have safe access to females and feeding sites.

It is likely that some cubs use rub trees to protect themselves. Adult males have been known to kill cubs in a bid to mate with new mothers. Researchers have evidence to suggest that these cubs will try to ape the smell of a dominant bear by pressing up against scent-laden trees.^[2]

Both brown bears and polar bears have large sweat glands between their toes. As they stomp around on all fours, the creatures’ paws release distinctive scents. This pungent aroma reveals a bear’s sex and reproductive status. Sometimes, the bear will go that extra mile, mashing its own urine and sweat secretions into the ground.

8 Sneeze For Democracy

The African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) is an endangered species native to sub-Saharan Africa. These pack hunters typically fall in line with the strongest members of their group. The dominant male bonds with the dominant female, and the pair govern the pack’s day-to-day activities. But the dogs seem to show a curious appreciation for democracy, too.

In 2014, a team of researchers went out to the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust to study the behaviors of the wild dogs. The zoologists were surprised to learn that the dogs were conducting their own social rallies.

The vote system was even more perplexing. After forming an assembly, the wild dogs would sneeze at one another to indicate their preferences. The more sneezes issued, the more likely the pack commenced a hunt.

A “sneeze threshold”—called the “quorum”—is needed before the pack comes to an agreement. If the social rally is initiated by a lower-ranked dog, around 10 sneezes are needed. But if a dominant male or female calls a rally, the threshold could be as low as three sneezes.^[3]

Similar coordination has been observed in meerkats. A chorus of “moving calls” is needed to bring about a democratic consensus over where to forage. When three or more meerkats issue the call, the mob must work together to find a new site.

7 The Internet Of Fungus

Beneath our very feet lies a giant information superhighway, similar to the Internet but biological. This network is comprised of tiny fungal threads called mycelium. Hundreds of millions of years ago, some of these networks even seeded enormous tree-sized fungi that burst from the soil.

Today, these sprawling networks can grow to astronomical sizes. The soil around the Blue Mountains of Oregon is home to a fungal network that spans a staggering 2,384 acres. This 2,400-year-old fungus is Earth’s largest known organism.^[4]

Fungi have a mutually beneficial relationship with 90 percent of all land-based plants. Mycelial networks form around the roots of plants and trees, protecting them from harmful bacteria and improving nutrient uptake. They decompose plant matter, maintain healthy soil, and feed nutrients from one plant to another.

For example, members of many tree species use these networks to share nutrients with young, undernourished trees. In exchange for this service, the fungi receive a source of carbohydrates.

Individual plants can essentially talk to one another through the mycelial network. In 2010, Chinese researchers discovered that tomato plants use these fungal structures to send distress signals.

After encountering a deadly organism, infected plants would use the mycelial network to share information with their neighbors. The healthy plants would then produce defensive enzymes to resist the disease.

6 Spit-Swapping Ants Leave Pheromone Trails

Ants are highly social insects that live and work in large colonies. Coordination of nest construction, navigation, and colony defense are all achieved using a range of biological tools.

Ants often use pheromones to mark a food trail, showing other colony members where to forage. Other ants detect these chemical signals with their antennae and join the trail. As more and more ants strap on their work boots and join the trail, the pheromone scent grows stronger. This entices even larger numbers of ants to join in.

An ant secretes a cocktail of pheromones from the glands lining its abdomen, thorax, anus, and feet. The composition of this pheromone mixture plays a crucial role in communicating different ideas about a food trail. A trail’s scent tells an ant about both rewarding and unrewarding paths. Short-term scents can even serve as “attack signals” which direct the colony toward nearby prey.

Ants also exchange saliva as a means of recognizing different nest mates. This rather curious display, which looks a lot like mouth-to-mouth kissing, is called trophallaxis. The saliva contains pheromones, hormones, food, and genetic material. This exchange provides chemical information on the colony and reproductive status of a worker.^[5]

5 The Honeybee Waggle Dance

During the spring, honeybee workers scour the countryside in search of nectar, pollen, water, and tree resin. As with the humble ant, each individual bee must communicate its findings with the rest of the hive. The honeybee uses a very specific dance routine to do this: the waggle dance.

At first glance, the waggle dance may appear rather haphazard. But the carefully choreographed routine actually conveys a lot of very useful information.

First, the bee must grab the attention of its fellow nectar lovers. It clambers atop another bee and vibrates rapidly. When a large enough crowd has formed, the bee starts to bust some moves. It waggles its body while moving in a straight line. The duration of this “waggle run” tells the others how far away the flower patch is.

The dance direction tells the bees which way they must fly with respect to the Sun. If the dancer is jiggling upward, then the food is located in the direction of the Sun on the horizon. If the bee is facing downward, then the food is located in the opposite direction to the Sun on the horizon.

The dancing honeybee may provide onlookers with a sample of what she has found, regurgitating some of the nectar from her stomach. Before taking flight, the colony members sniff the dancer to get a better idea of what flower patch they are looking for.^[6]

4 African Knifefish Use Electrolocation

In 1949, British zoologist Hans W. Lissmann was enjoying a trip to the London Zoo when he noticed something unusual in one of the aquarium tanks. One of the fish demonstrated an incredible aptitude for swimming in reverse, blindly weaving around obstacles dotted about the tank.

It was the African knifefish. Lissmann already knew that the creature had an organ that could generate weak electric discharges. But he began to wonder whether these discharges were helping the fish navigate.

As luck would have it, Lissmann was given an African knifefish as a wedding gift. Within a short time, the researcher had answers. It became clear that the fish was transmitting electric fields from a small organ in its tail.

The distortions in these signals, which are detected via receptors in the skin, told the fish about its environment. Incredibly, the creature could distinguish between different materials based upon an object’s electrical conductivity.

Mormyrid fish not only use these electric organs to hunt in the murky depths of rivers and lakes but to also send coded messages to one another. Different discharge patterns indicate the behaviors, sex, species, and social status of the fish.

A particular type of mormyrid, the bulldog fish, uses electricity as part of its courtship ritual. The females are attracted to longer pulses as they are a sign of a strong partner. There is a slight problem, though. Predatory catfish have been known to intercept these signals, catching the crooning male with his pants down.^[7]

3 Crested Pigeons Use Wing Whistling

Crested pigeons have evolved a warning system that broadcasts information about potential predators. The crested pigeon, Ocyphaps lophotes, is native to mainland Australia. The bird has a very distinctive appearance with its green-purple wings and mohawk-like crest.

When startled, the bird launches into the sky and emits a series of panic-induced whistles. But these noises are not produced by the bird’s vocal cords. They are the result of vibrations in a part of the wing—specifically, the eighth primary feather.

With each upstroke of the wing, a low-frequency note is generated. Each downstroke produces a high-frequency note. The bird frantically flaps its wings while trying to escape an incoming predator. This triggers a quick succession of high and low notes, which other crested pigeons interpret as a warning signal.

Crested pigeons always whistle when taking off. However, a relaxed takeoff does not initiate any sort of warning signal. This is because the wing beat is too slow, resulting in a slower tempo of notes.^[8]

2 White-Lipped Frogs Communicate via Seismic Signals

During the 1980s, physiologist Peter Narins participated in a field trip to the El Yunque National Forest of Puerto Rico. The animal kingdom asserted its might, filling the professor’s ears with “a cacophony as loud as a subway train passing 6 meters (20 ft) away.” But Narins took a much keener interest in what was happening closer to the ground.

While observing the white-lipped frog, Leptodactylus albilabris, Narins noticed some unusual behavior. The nocturnal amphibian buried its rear in the ground and repeatedly inflated its vocal sac. The research team used geophones to listen in. As the frog chirped away, its sac would strike the ground and generate a sequence of thumps.

It turns out that this ritual was part of a territorial announcement issued by male frogs. The white-lipped frog is small and cannot compete with the bellowing croaks of much larger frogs. So the clever little guy evolved a rather ingenious work-around.

The inner ear of L. albilabris boasts a crystal-filled structure—the sacculus—which behaves like a biological seismometer. When the frog’s vocal sac inflates, the resultant vibrations travel through the ground and trigger the sacculi of nearby frogs. These signals allow male frogs to pinpoint one another and maintain their distance.

Narins went one step further and created his own faux frog out of spare typewriter parts. When he mimicked the thumping pattern, all the frogs within a 3-meter (10 ft) radius would respond in unison.^[9]

1 Elephants Use Sign Language, Sniffing, And Rumbles

Elephants are the masters of communication. These gentle giants communicate using touch, smell, acoustics, and sign language.

Elephant researcher and biologist Joyce Poole discovered that elephants use over 200 different calls and gestures. After studying the creatures for 40 years, Poole can reliably predict what an elephant will do based upon its posture, movement, and sounds. From the curl of a trunk to the flick of a head, each movement is deliberate and meaningful.

“I noticed that when I would take out guests visiting Amboseli [National Park in Kenya] and was narrating the elephants’ behavior,” explained Poole, “I got to the point where 90 percent of the time, I could predict what the elephant was about to do.”

Poole used her findings to create a database of elephant language. She even helped develop an online translator. Like humans, elephants have different personalities. Some elephants are coy and subtle. Others are expressive and outgoing.

An elephant that stands tall and spreads its ears is projecting aggression. Head waggling is a sign of playfulness. Foot-swinging gestures are a way of telling the herd which way to travel. And trunk “high-fiving” is seen during times of celebration.

An elephant adopts the “freeze position” when it espies potential danger. It alerts its allies by trumpeting a mix of high- and low-frequency sounds.^[10] The high-frequency sounds travel a short distance through the air. Low-frequency rumbles travel seismically over a much greater distance, typically between 8–10 kilometers (5–6 mi).

The Earth’s vibrations are detected in special nerve endings in the elephant’s trunk and feet. This allows elephants to talk to each other when separated. An elephant can even sense a zeal of stampeding zebra from several miles away.

An elephant’s trunk is essential for communication, too. Their trunks are packed with millions of olfactory receptor cells, giving elephants an incredible sense of smell.

Elephants will sniff and taste each other’s urine, feces, and secretions for chemicals. During bonding ceremonies, the females become so excited that they defecate and urinate everywhere. Important information about a herd member’s physiological state is encoded within these scents.

The trunk is also used during social rubbing to reinforce bonds between close family members.

In the past, we have examined the origins of some popular and peculiar idioms, but for every true story, there’s also a false one, that sometimes becomes more popular than the truth. So today, we put our debunking hats on and set out to correct a few myths about language and communication, be they false acronyms, fake word origins, and even a few misconceptions about nonverbal communication.

10. Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden

An acronym is a type of abbreviation that takes the initial letters of a series of words and pronounces them as one single word, as in, for example, NASA or NATO. And here’s a fun fact for you: if the letters in the new word are pronounced individually instead of a single word, as in FBI or KFC, for example, that would be an initialism, not an acronym.

But back to our main point, there is a belief that the word “golf” is also an acronym, which stands for “gentlemen only, ladies forbidden.” It sounds plausible, since, traditionally, women were discouraged from taking part in the sport, but not only is it false, it is based on an old joke that got repeated so often that people started taking it as fact.

As a general rule, English acronyms are a relatively recent practice that has only been around for a century-and-a-half or so. Therefore, if the word is older than that, chances are that it’s not an acronym, and the word “golf” has been around for 600 years, at least. The earliest written mention we have of it comes from an act of King James II from 1457, where he actually banned it because he felt it discouraged people from practicing archery.

As to the word’s actual origins, those are a bit murkier. Some say it is derived from a Scottish word, others from a Dutch word. We just know that it’s not an acronym.

9. The Rednecks of Blair Mountain

Another word with an uncertain origin is “redneck,” used in a derogatory way synonymous with “yokel” or “hillbilly.” On one hand, the word “redneck” has a great origin story that connects it to the Battle of Blair Mountain, a notorious and violent event that, to this day, still represents the largest labor uprising in United States history. On the other hand, the story isn’t entirely accurate.

In August 1921, around 10,000 miners from West Virginia clashed with lawmen and strikebreakers who were there to prevent their attempts to unionize. This was part of a larger series of labor conflicts that occurred during the late 19th-early 20th century known as the Coal Wars. 

The striking miners wore red bandannas around their necks and became known as the “Red Neck Army,” and the men themselves were, eventually, referred to simply as rednecks. It is quite a compelling tale, and all of it is true except for the part about it being the origin of the word “redneck” which goes back farther than the Battle of Blair Mountain.

As we said at the start, we’re unsure where the word “redneck” comes from, but we do know that the Oxford English Dictionary contains usages of it dated to decades before the labor uprising, even going as far back as the late-19th century. 

8. Putting the “Crap” in “Crapper”

While we’re on the subject of fake word origins that have stuck around simply because people like the story behind them, let’s talk about the words “crap” and “crapper,” both supposedly named after the inventor of the flush toilet, Thomas Crapper.

This is a two-pronged myth. The first false notion is that Thomas Crapper invented the flush toilet. He didn’t. It’s true that he was a real plumber who later opened his own company and that he held several patents related to plumbing, but none of them were quite as grandiose as the flush toilet system. Sir John Harrington was the first to describe the flush toilet all the way back in 1596, but he never actually built it. Then, Alexander Cummings was the first to receive a patent for it in 1775. Both of them were active centuries before Thomas Crapper, who operated his company during the late 19th century.

As for the word “crap,” that one is even older, and it could come from medieval Latin, Old French, or even Dutch, as they all had similar-sounding words. The connection between “crap” and Thomas Crapper was made in 1969 by author Wallace Reyburn, who wrote the satirical book Flushed with Pride, so it seems like this is another case of people taking a joke and accepting it as fact.

7. The Spanish “Lisp”

This is a myth that most people will come across if they study Spanish long enough. There is a notion that there once was a Spanish king, usually named Ferdinand, who spoke with a lisp. Wanting to suck up to the king, his courtiers began imitating him and, before you know it, the entire country started speaking like him, and that’s how the so-called Spanish lisp appeared.

Once again, we have a myth that must be debunked on two fronts. The first is the very existence of the Spanish lisp. A lisp is a speech impediment and to imply that an entire nation can share a collective verbal disorder is nonsensical. There are some differences between how certain European Spanish and Latin American Spanish words are pronounced, but these are simple variations in language like you would also find between British and American English.

Then there’s the story of the lisping king. No such Spanish monarch has ever been positively identified. The closest we have comes courtesy of 14th-century historian Pedro López de Ayala, who wrote of King Peter the Cruel of Castile and Leon that he spoke “with a slight lisp.” There is, however, no mention that anyone ever mimicked him, let alone the entire kingdom.

6. Start Spreading the NEWS

We move on to another fake acronym, the word “news,” which, bizarrely enough, has not one, but two false explanations. Some say that it stands for “north, east, west, and south” because it brings you information from all over the world. Others say that it actually stands for “notable events, weather, and sports”.

Neither one is true, in fact. “News” doesn’t stand for anything. It is simply meant to be the plural of the word “new” and it dates back all the way to the 14th century. The plural form was used in order to refer to “new things,” inspired by the French word nouvelles and the German neues.

5. The 420 California Code

Many groups of people have private languages, codes, and other ways of communicating with each other in secret. It can be anything from a complicated cipher to a simple reference that only a select few would understand. Nowadays, everyone and their grandma knows that “420” is a weed term referring to smoking pot. It has become so pervasive in pop culture that April 20 is even the unofficial holiday that celebrates all things cannabis.

But there was a time when the term was much more mysterious. It was meant to be a secret, after all. The most credible origin of the story traces it to a group of high school stoners called “Waldos” who attended San Rafael High in California in 1971. “420 Louis,” as the code was originally, signified their plan to meet up at 4:20 pm in front of the school’s Louis Pasteur statue to relax with a quick doobie or whatever the kids were calling it in those days. Eventually, the term was shortened simply to “420” and it became widely used by their extended circle of friends. This happened to include a few members of the Grateful Dead, who further disseminated the usage of the term among their legions of fans known as deadheads. 

It wasn’t until almost two decades later, in 1990, that High Times magazine told the story of “420” to the world at large…except that they got it wrong because they claimed that “420” referred to the California police code for smoking pot…and that’s not true. Or, alternatively, the state penal code for smoking pot. Which, again, is not true. That particular penal code, which does exist, refers to unlawfully obstructing a person from entering public land. It wasn’t until 1997 that some of those former Waldos contacted High Times to get the story straight but, by then, the myth had firmly planted roots.

4. Freezing Monkey Balls

We’ve already examined a few incorrect origins of words, but what about an idiom? If, for example, you were to find yourself shivering in subzero temperatures, you might exclaim that it’s “cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.” It’s a great expression and it even has a great origin story. During the Age of Sail, brass monkeys were indented metal trays used on ships to stack cannonballs in a pyramid shape. However, when it got really cold, the brass would contract more than the iron cannonballs, and the latter would come tumbling down all over the deck.

Unfortunately, although it is a compelling story, it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. For starters, ships didn’t store their cannonballs on deck, exposed to the elements, where they would rust. They had special lockers for them. Even if they did, they certainly would not have stacked them in a precarious pyramid shape that would have likely crumbled while passing even over a gentle wave. And even if they did all of that, for whatever reason, physics would still spoil the party because the difference between the coefficient of expansion of brass and iron is negligible, not enough to cause the monkey’s balls to tumble.

3. Save Our Syntax

When it comes to nonverbal communication, Morse Code is, without a doubt, one of the most well-known systems. We’ve all heard of it, and even though most of us probably don’t know how to use it, we are still aware of one key phrase: dot dot dot, dash dash dash, dot dot dot – SOS.

It has been the international distress signal for over a hundred years. Sure, nowadays we have faster and easier ways of signaling for help, but SOS still remains ingrained in the public consciousness. But what does it stand for? “Save our souls” is the most common answer, although “save our ship” is a popular runner-up. But the truth is that SOS doesn’t stand for anything and that was kind of the point. It was a simple, elegant, unmistakable, and recognizable code sequence. It was purposely chosen so that it could be transmitted without pause and repeated every few seconds without the possibility of it being misinterpreted as a different message. 

2. Rechristened at Ellis Island

In 1892, the United States opened its first federal immigration station at Ellis Island in New York Harbor, where over 12 million immigrants were processed over the following six decades. Unfortunately, those immigrants lost something very important to them during their passage through Ellis Island – their names. Immigration officials often changed their names to something that sounded more American – Schmidt became Smith, Noblinski became Noble, Weber became Weaver, and so on. Other times they did it because they couldn’t communicate with the immigrants who didn’t speak English or even simply because they couldn’t spell the foreign names. And just like that, with the stroke of a pen, they erased a person’s whole identity. It is a widely-believed story that has been referenced multiple times in media, most famous of all in The Godfather Part II. But is it true?

Out of millions of people, it’s certainly possible that a few might have been altered due to some error, but it was certainly not common practice and government records are there to prove that people came out of Ellis Island with the same names they went in. Many immigrants elected to change their names afterward, in order to fit in more easily. 

Contrary to popular belief, Ellis Island employed interpreters for all the major languages to communicate with the immigrants who didn’t speak English. And even if they weren’t around, it still didn’t matter. Officials didn’t need to speak with the immigrants to find out who they were – they had the ship’s manifest log, with everyone’s name already written out. The inspection at Ellis Island was mainly concerned with making sure that the immigrants had their papers in order and that they passed a physical exam. 

1. Flippin’ the Bird in Medieval Times

We end our list with a myth about the origins of the most famous and widely-recognized gesture in the world – the middle finger. It is said that it was first used as a taunt by English soldiers after fighting the French at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. If you are up on your medieval warfare, then you would know that, at the time, the English longbow was quite a powerful and menacing weapon, feared throughout the whole of Europe. The French were heavily favored to win that battle and, according to the myth, they intended to cut off the middle fingers of all the captured English soldiers, so they would no longer be able to draw a longbow.

History buffs will be aware that the English gave the French a thorough spanking at the Battle of Agincourt. Not only that, but adding insult to injury, they all waved their middle fingers as the French army retreated to show that they still had their digits firmly attached to their hands. 

There are two problems with that story. The first one is practical – nobody would pay to ransom archers who couldn’t fire a longbow. As harsh as it may sound, archers weren’t very high up in the military hierarchy, and archers who couldn’t fight anymore were almost useless. If the French truly intended to cut off their fingers, they would have known that the English wouldn’t want them back.

The second problem is historical. There is plenty of evidence that the middle finger has been around as a rude gesture for a lot longer than Medieval England. Roman historian Tacitus wrote that German tribesmen taunted Roman soldiers with the middle finger. And even before them, Diogenes the philosopher used the same gesture on Demosthenes the orator, way back in 4th century BC Athens. So it seems that people have been insulting each other with the middle finger for thousands of years.