**4. Conclusions**

Taking all the previous arguments into account, we can examine many of the parallelisms existing among classical behavioural analysis [6] and narrative (structural) analysis [4] that lead to assume that when describing and interpreting animal behaviour and/or communication, we are, in fact, telling (reconstructing) 'evolutionary stories'. Importantly, the fact of telling stories does not mean that our interpretations of animal behaviour obtained by these methods/means are not scientific, because the capability of understanding behaviour and signals of animals in a scientific way does not depend on the higher or lower level of mathematical formality of the description or interpretation, but on the ability to understand/ decode the information present in the 'stories' animals tell through their behaviour, and in the contextualization of those stories through hermeneutic analysis.

The idea of Umwelt introduced by von Uexküll is fundamental in our possibilities of interpreting animal behaviour and animal signals [27]. This is because, the capabilities of meaning-making in a signalling system each species has depend on their sensory capabilities, and the relationship between perception and action highlighted by the Umwelt concept—is related to their sensory abilities (also part of the Umwelt). In a similar way to what Cognitive Linguistics does essentially for

**47**

*'Evolutionary Stories': Narratives as Evolutionary Tools to Describe and Analyse Animal…*

tional) and external (biological and non-biological) contextual factors.

known as Zoosemiotics, and later theoretically rounded as Biosemiotics.

humans only [2], biologists (supported by the 'narrative' view here expressed and by the concepts taken from von Uexküll's work) should study the communication systems and behaviour of animals as if they were 'grammatical' phenomena whose characteristics are determined by a combination of internal (structural and motiva-

Then, we need to have a similar Umwelt to that of the species being studied (or at least some means to access the sensory capabilities needed if different from our own) to be capable of decoding the information exchanged through animal behav-

The preceding argument derives from the idea that the older language of all is the language of life [28] expressed through genetic codes and biological signals, thus through semiosis, a process that is thought to be ancestral to all life, and probably a process that defines life. As Sebeok's ideas of semiosis in nature linked to von Uexküll's concepts relating the internal and external world of animals and their abilities to produce signals, their ideas have developed into a new science initially

The argument of this chapter is mainly about the way we should look to animal behaviour and communication if we want to understand what animals do and why, and how they can cooperate and compete, by the understanding of the messages they use and their real meaning. Here I argue that in fact that is what we do, as scientists, because we tend to interpret animal behaviour and signals as if we were reading (or listening to) a story. Thus, the type of analysis we can apply through formal narrative analysis and/or cognitive linguistics analysis to animal behaviour is similar to the way we in general examine the world and our own communication system, and depends on our abilities of interpretation and decoding. Indeed, maybe many other animal species use similar 'cognitive devices' (through an embodied type of cognition) to code/decode their communication signals' meaning and

Finally, we can say that the possibility of interpreting behaviour and/or animal signals will depend on our capability to empathize with other species and on our decoding abilities towards the behavioural sequences constituting informational

The author wants to acknowledge partial funding for the publication of this

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89209*

construct an image of the external world.

manuscript by PEDECIBA (Uruguay).

**Acknowledgements**

**Conflict of interest**

units we can understand as 'evolutionary stories'.

The author declares that he has no conflict of interest.

iour signals or narratives.

#### *'Evolutionary Stories': Narratives as Evolutionary Tools to Describe and Analyse Animal… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89209*

humans only [2], biologists (supported by the 'narrative' view here expressed and by the concepts taken from von Uexküll's work) should study the communication systems and behaviour of animals as if they were 'grammatical' phenomena whose characteristics are determined by a combination of internal (structural and motivational) and external (biological and non-biological) contextual factors.

Then, we need to have a similar Umwelt to that of the species being studied (or at least some means to access the sensory capabilities needed if different from our own) to be capable of decoding the information exchanged through animal behaviour signals or narratives.

The preceding argument derives from the idea that the older language of all is the language of life [28] expressed through genetic codes and biological signals, thus through semiosis, a process that is thought to be ancestral to all life, and probably a process that defines life. As Sebeok's ideas of semiosis in nature linked to von Uexküll's concepts relating the internal and external world of animals and their abilities to produce signals, their ideas have developed into a new science initially known as Zoosemiotics, and later theoretically rounded as Biosemiotics.

The argument of this chapter is mainly about the way we should look to animal behaviour and communication if we want to understand what animals do and why, and how they can cooperate and compete, by the understanding of the messages they use and their real meaning. Here I argue that in fact that is what we do, as scientists, because we tend to interpret animal behaviour and signals as if we were reading (or listening to) a story. Thus, the type of analysis we can apply through formal narrative analysis and/or cognitive linguistics analysis to animal behaviour is similar to the way we in general examine the world and our own communication system, and depends on our abilities of interpretation and decoding. Indeed, maybe many other animal species use similar 'cognitive devices' (through an embodied type of cognition) to code/decode their communication signals' meaning and construct an image of the external world.

Finally, we can say that the possibility of interpreting behaviour and/or animal signals will depend on our capability to empathize with other species and on our decoding abilities towards the behavioural sequences constituting informational units we can understand as 'evolutionary stories'.
