Unlike some biologists, Professor Ashley Ward does not merely observe animals, but tries to figure out how — and if — they talk to each other. The renowned animal expert spends much of his professional time at exotic locales like the Great Barrier Reef and Narrabeen Lagoon, where he will observe schools of fish making instantaneous collective decisions, like simultaneously turning in a specific direction, and wonder about how fish can recognize each other. Over the years he has learned that fish use a number of overlapping systems to communicate, from their physiology to their environment.
Ward's research is at the forefront of the study of how animals socialize. Humans have a tendency to project our own systems of recognition and communication onto the animal world — yet it turns out that animals are too far from us for the comparison to always work. Fish don't smile and wave at strangers, and yaks don't feel embarrassed at a stray piece of food stuck to their beard. The field of what animal "societies" look like is still burgeoning, it turns out.
