Can Animals Understand Speech

Have you ever had a conversation with an animal or thought about it? Could animals speak? Do they understand us? Humans tend to have a special bond and relationship with house pets. Approximately 62% population claim that their pets understand them and listen to their orders. Well, not all house pets as there is no such evidence that our fish and lizards understand us.
A study of 2016 showed that dogs, apes, potbelly pigs, elephants, and dolphins listen and respond to human speech.
A border collie, Rico demonstrated that he knew the name of more than 200 objects, and could fetch these items on command. Similarly, another border collie Chaser could distinguish the names of at least 1,022 objects, he could also infer the names of new objects. He can also understand verbs and objects used in different contexts and follows all the commands like, fetch, touch, or take.
There are these animals too who don't have a close relationship with humans. For instance, A bonobo ape Kanzi, with the help of training and working with his master, he was able to demonstrate his understanding of more than 3,000 English words. In an experiment, A researcher would speak the words from a separate room to avoid giving any contextual clues, and he would listen through headphones and point to the symbol represented by the word on his special keyboard.
At the San Francisco zoo on the 4th of July 1971, a Gorilla named Hanabi-ko was born. The zoo called her Koko. After her first birthday, she started learning an American sign language from the psychologist named Francine “Penny” Patterson, with his help she learned 2000 words approximately. She developed her personality in such a way that everybody loved her and calls her smart. She didn't just communicate but also tells jokes and playing tricks on her trainers. Moreover, she gained global fame and became friends with several celebrities. She could even use a camera and displayed on the cover page of National Geographic in 1978 and 1985.
In 1984, there was an interesting case of a pair of bottlenose dolphins, who demonstrated that they were able to understand full sentences. In training sessions, Trainers used computer-generated sounds and hand signals to communicate with the dolphins, who were able to follow instructions ranging from 2 to 5 words in length. They could also locate objects placed in the tank within 30 seconds after commands were given.

By- Sakshi Bhardwaj