Neurobiology’s solutions to the predator–prey conundrum The Neuroethology of Predation and Escape Keith T Sillar, Laurence D. Picton and William J. Heitler (John Wiley and Sons, Oxford; 2016) ISBN: 9780470972236/43

to a comprehensive database of conventional orang-utan sounds, Adriano Lameira and colleagues from Durham University, UK, concluded that Rocky was able to learn new sounds not normally included in the vocal repertoire of his species. “This indicates that the voice control shown by humans could derive from an evolutionary ancestor with similar voice control capacities as those found in orang-utans and in all great apes more generally,” Lameira said in a press statement. “This opens up the potential for us to learn more about the vocal capacities of early hominids that lived before the split between the orang-utan and human lineages to see how the vocal system evolved towards fullblown speech in humans.” All in all, many animals appear to have the brains and the sounds to communicate in the way that many humans tend to prefer, by vocalisation. Talking with animals may just be a question of discovering the right enticement for them, or maybe of fi nding out what they want to talk about.