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Nature 434, 702-703 (7 April 2005) | doi:10.1038/434702a; Published online 6 April 2005

Don't talk to the animals

Neil Smith1

BOOK REVIEWEDDoctor Dolittle's Delusion: Animals and the Uniqueness of Human Language

by Stephen R. Anderson

Yale University Press: 2004. 368 pp. $35, £22.50

Doctor Dolittle was the hero of a series of children's books written by Hugh Lofting (1886–1947). The doctor's ability to talk to every animal in its own language had a seductive appeal that finds current expression in the widespread belief that the communication systems of animals, from bees to bonobos, are essentially similar to human language.

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