Chatty cats and talking dogs could one day ‘speak’ in our language 

In the animated movie Up, a yellow, tail-wagging dog shows up wearing an electronic collar. The main character, a curious and cheerful 8-year-old boy named Russell, tells the dog to sit. The dog sits. Russell tells the dog to shake. The dog extends a paw. Russell then tells the dog to speak.  

“Hi there,” says the dog.  

To Russell’s amazement, the dog’s collar translates his doggy thoughts into actual human words. “My master made me this collar,” Dug the dog tells his new acquaintances. “He is a good and smart master, and he made me this collar so I may talk — SQUIRREL!” 

This is a common piece of technology in stories — a translator that can decode animals’ barks, squeaks, meows, clicks and such, into human language.  

Back here in the nonfiction world, anyone with a pet has probably wondered at some point what’s going on in that cute little animal head. Scientists can’t say. But there are reasons to think that an animal-human translator won’t stay a work of science fiction forever. “I think these things may be one day doable,” says Erich Jarvis. He’s a neurogeneticist at The Rockefeller University in New York City.

One day, pets may wear little devices like Dug’s collar. Or an app on a phone might translate pet sounds into words. This neat trick could finally let you learn the answer to why your cat is staring at that empty corner of the living room.

Learning languages 

Advances in computing power, artificial intelligence (AI) and fancy tools that measure sounds promise to bring people closer to conversing with other animals. These advances could turn animal chatter into bits of information that can be decoded by humans.  

Of course, some animals can already talk to us — in our preferred languages, too. Jarvis tells the story of a parrot that left its California home. It returned years later speaking Spanish, he says.  

Such language skills are rare. Thinking up a message and making intricate vocal sounds to convey it take special mental skills and a great flexibility of body systems. These traits are present in fewer than 1 percent of vertebrate species, says Michael Long. He’s a neuroscientist at New York University in New York City.  

Not all animals may be good conversationalists. Take vervet monkeys. “Their cognitive abilities are huge,” Long says. But they flounder when it comes to producing complex sounds. “So they have one of those requirements, but they need to get the other one,” Long says.  

And with rare exceptions, none really speak our language. But that gap can be overcome. It may just take a slight shift in what we consider talking. “Animals are speaking, often — to use speaking in a very loose way — more vibrantly than we had ever given them credit for,” Long says. 

Understanding animals 

Like parrots, dolphins and whales may similarly make good conversation partners with people. In 2023, scientists used a decoded whale “hello” to enjoy a short conversation with an Alaskan humpback. This exchange consisted of a volley of whale whups, translated into English as “hello.” Still, both parties engaged in this interspecies chat. 

Another group of researchers has since discovered that whale language shares statistical properties with those spoken by humans. With these sorts of advances, perhaps we’ll soon be swapping krill recipes.

Some of Jarvis’ research includes mice that have been genetically changed to produce more complex sounds. He is part of a team that’s closely examining key genes that are active in good vocal learners. Mice with a human version of a protein called NOVA1, for instance, made more complex vocalizations. To be clear, this is not yet a talking mouse. But the research is moving fast.

Some animal messages are clear even without a fancy sci-fi gadget. “Animals are broadly expressive,” Long points out. Anguished yowls of a cat sitting by her unfilled food dish are no great mystery.  

Messages don’t even require a vocal tract. Mongolian gerbils, for instance, beat out messages by thumping the ground percussively. Dances, posture, color and even objects can all carry messages. Just think about it: You can probably figure out the message when a dog holds his leash in his mouth and sits by the front door. 

So while we wait for a gizmo that translates our pets’ thoughts into words, consider the wildly variable ways animals already communicate. Long’s formerly stray Brooklyn cats, for instance, have plenty to say. Their needs and wants are “very, very transparent,” he says.

Should a cat-human translator ever exist, Long’s message to one of his cats would be short, sweet and practical: “I would tell him not to sit too close to the stove when I’m cooking. I think that’s it.”