Plenty of people feel that animals are expressionless. Anybody with pets knows that this absolutely not the case. On the contrary, animals can indeed be very expressive. Body language plays an important role in communication between animals.

Animal Body Language!

Body language is a primary means of conveying social information among mammals and other animal species. Some expressions can be accurately interpreted even between members of different species, anger and extreme contentment being classic examples. Others, however, are difficult to comprehend even in familiar individuals.

Expressions rely upon minuscule differences in the proportion and relative position of facial features, and reading them requires considerable sensitivity to them. They say animals have rudimentary taste buds. One thing that I know for sure is that all my dogs (seven in all, considering the years that have passed by) have had taste buds of a gourmet chef!

One day on a safari, I witnessed a scene that will remain etched in my memory forever. Not because anything dramatic happened, but because of the expressions on the face of a Wild Boar that suddenly and quite unexpectedly came face to face with a Spotted Deer.

I was so excited that I leaned out of the jeep to freeze the moment on film. The Wild Boar then turned to look at me, and with what an expression on his face at that! I am sure he was equally amused at my expression.

Surprised?

This was certainly among the best wildlife moments of my life!!

Vikram Nanjappa

Vikram Nanjappa likes to be described as an interested and well-informed amateur. He draws his inspiration from the band of men called the Orientalists, most of whom were amateurs. By profession, they were soldiers and administrators. However, today, they are remembered as giants of scholarship. Like them, his field of enquiry is ‘Man and Nature; (with an emphasis on Nature) whatever is performed by the one or produced by the other’. He currently resides in Bangalore and freelances as a writer and photographer. He can be contacted at nanjappavikram@yahoo.co.in.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 14th, 2012 at 5:32 pm and is filed under Carnivore, Destinations, Herbivores, Mammal, Nature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.