animal communication

n. 1. Communication between animals. 2. A branch of ethology, sociobiology, and animal cognition also called zoosemiotics which studies methods animals use to transfer information between them. In the second half of the 20th century researchers began discovering that animals communicate in numerous ways not previously recognized, many of which are outside human sensory abilities. Attempts to define differences in human and animal communication have usually been frustrated as new aspects of communication among animals have been discovered which were previously believed to be exclusively human.