Animals communicate within their species via four major modalities. The first of which is auditory signals. These are the calls, whines, and noises that each animal makes to communicate. Each noise has its own meaning behind it and context is extremely important for such situations. For example, during mating season, black-back gulls make a “mew” sound which is a sign of hunger and the desire to nuptial feed. This same sound is made by the gulls outside of mating season in order to call in back up for territorial disputes. Visual cues such as body position, colorations, and even dance or other ritualistic movements are the next modality of communication. These visual cues can be used as signs of aggression, dominance, and of course fertility. The third modality is the animal’s chemical signals. As we all know, each organism has a set of pheromones which elicit a response in a partner. This chemical signal is used to signify the beginning of mating season and the organism’s ability to mate. Lastly are tactile signals. Organisms may touch, poke or prod at each other to send a signal. An example of this once again comes from the black back gulls whose females often rub their heads on a mate’s neck to beg for food and/or sex. Each modality has unique characteristics, and all send different signals to members of the species. Therefore, it is important to analyze the situation to try and decipher the message being broadcasted.
Comments
One thing I noticed was in
One thing I noticed was in this sentence: "As we all know, each organism has a set of pheromones which elicit a response in a partner". I'm not sure if "as we all know" is the best phrase to pick because the reader may not actually know that even if it seems trivial.
Great paragraph
I thought this was an excellent paragraph and really informative! I think you could maybe combine the sentence "Lastly are tactile signals." with the following sentence just because it's slightly abrupt, but besides that it was great. You also did a really job opening and closing the paragraph.
Abrupt second sentence
The second sentence you have is abrupt immediately after the introduction of there being four different signals. A simple restating such as " One of the major models of communication is auditory signals". Also, it may be helpful to list all four signals upfront and then get into them individually in the paragraph, so that the reader knows what they are. I am not sure if in animal communication it is taught as the "4 modalities" and they have a specific order, but if not the ordering seems arbitrary and instead of saying "the third" you could just say "thirdly", unless of course you listed them all together in which case I would say you could just jump in explaining it after finishing one of the others.