Short Wave - Dogs Go Viral For 'Talking' To Humans — But Can They?

Episode Date: September 6, 2024

Last year, a dog named Bunny went viral on TikTok for pressing buttons with words on them to "communicate" with her owner. But can dogs even understand those words on a soundboard in the first place? A new study in the journal PLOS One seeks answers. Host Regina G. Barber and producer Rachel Carlson break down that story and more of the week's news with the help of All Things Considered's Ari Shapiro. Have other viral headlines that you want us to put to the test for its scientific truth? Email us at [e-mail] — we might cover it on a future episode! See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Hey, Shortwaiver is Regina Barber here. And I'm with Shortwave News Roundup regular and one of our favorites. Ari Shapiro. Oh, I bet you say that to all your regulars, but you're one of my favorites too. And our beloved producer, Rachel Carlson. Hi. So today are you telling me, I understand, about a discovered species that lives in arsenic.

And what's the other poison? Cyanide. Cyanide. Great. We're also going to talk about whether those dogs you see on TikTok can really understand those button commands. Dying to know. And we'll do a tribute to the famous beluga whale, Waldemir. Oh, RIP.

All that on this episode of Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR. Okay, R.A., where do you want to start? I bet dogs, but let's like save that. Yeah, take me into the cyanide and arsenic lake. Let's go for a swim. Okay, Mona Lake in California's eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains is a super harsh environment. It's saltier than the ocean. It has high concentrations of cyanide and arsenic. And unsurprisingly, not much live in Monon Lake. About a decade ago, a grad student took a sample of water.

And when biologist Nicole King's lab at the University of California, Berkeley, eventually looked at it under a microscope, it was teeming with coanoflagellates. Oh, a flagella is like a little tail that wiggles, right? Is this a thing with a tail? Yes, yeah. It is a super long word. A lot of the researchers I talk to actually called them coanos for short, which is kind of. cute. They have a nucleus and organelles like plants and animals, but they're their own group entirely. They can even form colonies of cells, and they're way too small to see with just your eyes, Ari, but one researcher told me they look kind of like badmint balls, and another one described them as sperm with skirts. So up to you. Take whichever imagery fits. Vivid image. But these skirted sperm-looking organisms are actually the closest living relatives to animals.

It's like having a cousin, but your common ancestor dates back anywhere from six 650 million years ago to a billion years ago. We don't know much about them. But what Nicole's team saw under the microscope from Mono Lake samples was a completely new species of coanos. And they can live in arsenic and cyanide. That's incredible. Yeah. So what is new to scientists about this?

Yeah. When Nicole and her lab were looking at this new species from Mono Lake, they saw something they'd never seen before. The coanos had live bacteria inside the center of these colonies of cells. Yeah. And normally coanos eat bacteria, but in this case, they have. hadn't. So a big question is what exactly are they doing? Plus, Nicole says understanding this relationship could eventually help us understand more about how animals and bacteria interact, like, in a human gut. We see this as a potential model for seeing how interactions with a microbiome

evolve. But I will say, Nicole and all of the other researchers I spoke to said that we have a pretty long way to go before we can actually make any of these comparisons and answer these questions. And we'll need to do more work outside the lab to understand how this species of coanos and coanos in general behave in their natural environment. But this is a good start. Good start. Okay, let's move along to the study about dogs and the word buttons. I think anybody who is on TikTok or Instagram has seen these videos, like Bunny is one of the

famous dogs that can allegedly communicate by pushing buttons that correspond to words. Yeah, you look so excited, Ari. Yeah, of course. Like science about dogs and TikTok. Tell me more. Tell me more. Bunny the dog is famous for seeming to communicate through these. buttons on a soundboard on the floor. You're going to disappoint me, aren't you? No. So it sounds like

you've seen some of Bunny's pretty famous videos where she pushes buttons. In one of them, she pushes the button for ouch. Where is your ouch? And after clicking a few other buttons, Bunny eventually hits the button for paw. And there happens to be a piece of wood stuck in her paw. I just, I'm really afraid you're going to burst my bubble right now and tell me this is all bogus. No, I'm not going to burst your bubble, but what I'm going to say is that the first thing we need to know before we know that they're talking to us is if they actually comprehend these words they're hearing from these buttons. So not using any context clues from humans, making hand gestures, or anything like that. So I'm not like giving my dog clues about going outside by

walking to the door, grabbing a leash or keys. Yeah, exactly. And this team of researchers at the University of California, San Diego, found in this small study that, yeah, dogs do seem to understand words like play or outside, whether those words are being spoken. by their owner or being triggered by a button. So it does kind of seem like dogs are processing the words, even when their owner's not present. So dogs can understand the words that these buttons are playing, but can the dogs use those same buttons to speak to humans? So we only know of one dog that's been scientifically proven to use buttons to like ask for

things, Sophia. That idea is what Frederico Rosano, a cognitive scientist and leads researcher, is researching next, whether there are more Sophia's out there. Comprehension should come before production. It's the same with kids. First, they understand what you mean by bowl and milk, and then they might ask for it. And their next study is a massive community science project, looking at roughly 10,000 dogs and 700 cats, plus some horses, goats, pigs. And all of their owners are going to be taking videos and sharing them with researchers.

So, Ari, if you're feeling inspired, you and other listeners can sign up on the UCSD Comparative Cognition Labs website. They have rolling admissions. And, you know, who knows? Maybe we'll be back in the future to talk to you about whether you should get your dog a soundboard to order you around. Frankly, think Bruce and Simone are bossy enough without my actually giving them the ability to specifically ask for what they want. Okay. Our last story is a tribute to a famous beluga whale. Tell us about him.

Yeah, this is Voldemir. He was found dead this past weekend. And our colleague Rachel Treisman wrote an obit for him that you can read online. But a lot of people listening might remember Waldemir was discovered off the coast of Norway in 2019 wearing a camera harness that said equipment St. Petersburg. So a lot of people started speculating that he might have escaped a past life as a Russian spy. Right. This was a mystery that was never quite solved. But didn't his name actually come from this?

Yeah. Waldemir, it's a combination of the Norwegian word for whale, which is Vol and the Russian president, Vladimir, Putin's first name. Oh, okay. beyond his mysterious past. I feel like he's mostly been famous for being really friendly to people, right? Yeah, he's a man of mystery, but he's also known for being super friendly. He went viral a few times over the years when people caught him doing cute things on camera. Like one time he retrieved a kayaker's dropped GoPro, another time he played fetch with a man

throwing like a rugby ball off of his boat. And another video caught him playing around with an underwater drone. Yeah, well, the spies are always cute and charming, right? Isn't that how they portray? Spies are always throwing rugby balls off boat. I'm still sad. But over the past few years, concerns have been rising around Voldemir's safety. He's been hit by boats.

And last year, he was found in Sweden, which has, like, fewer fish and more people than Norway. Well, what do experts know about why he died? A necropsy is forthcoming, but a team of marine biologists and veterinarians took a look at photos of the dead whale and questioned whether he died of natural causes. Waldmir was between 14 and 15 years old, but the average lifespan of a beluga whale is around 30 years. So you're saying it could have been foul play. This spy could have been... It's even more sad, I know. To me, it sounds like a 007.

I don't know. Sad, but also espionage. Yeah. But in the meantime, people around the world are memorializing Waldemir for his playfulness and his resilience, which shed much needed light on the plight of beluga whales. And we also should mention that there are organizations like one whale and marine mind that were formed because of Voldemir and continue to dedicate time to marine conservation. Thanks for the remembrance.

Yeah, and thank you, Ari, for being on our show. Just another time, another day. Let's do it again soon. You can hear more of Ari doing his day job, hosting the news on Consider This, NPR's afternoon podcast about what the news means for you. Before we head out, a reminder that Shortwave Plus allows you to enjoy our show without sponsor interruptions, and it helps support our work. Find out more at plus.npr.npr.org slash shortwave. This episode was produced by Jason Fuller and Jessica Young. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez and Brett Bachman.

Tyler Jones checked facts. I'm Rachel Carlson. And I'm Regina Barber. Thank you for listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.