Many of my observations include animals producing vocalizations the contexts of which are varied and, according to official science, frequently ascribed to territoriality or other types of communication with affiliates or competitors.
The tawny owl male whom I keep observing, often hoots while on the hunt.
I have wondered if this could assist in provoking panicky responses in his prey.
As the prey perhaps rustles seeking shelter, he might be able to better locate it.
It is highly possible that the prey stays still while the predator is calling right nearby but if the predator is yet far (albeit at a distance that is still effective for the predator’s own perception), the prey might decide to take cover and owls might be able to hear it out.
Similarly, I was wondering if the hooting behaviour might be of assistance in territorial navigation (gaining a thorough understanding of the layout of the range) in this new resident tawny owl pair.
Wolves sometimes rally and howl before their hunting trips and while this could largely be a behaviour that sets the mood for cooperation, that allows to reacquire the respective hunting roles by the individuals within the group structure and that perhaps serves to boost the spirit before a long, arduous journey which might end with an encounter with formidable opponents, I have considered other reasons, as well (for example, determining what the weather might turn out to be etc.).
Besides, howling before departure to hunt is sort of countereffective because it might spook the prey in the proximity of the rallying wolves and they might have to travel further, as a result.
In this and some other cases, I am not convinced that the vocalization provides the desired results without great costs – unless it serves some other hidden (to us) purpose.
Song birds also start their day with intense singing activity which is thought to be territorial in nature and which is thought to occur predominantly in the beginning of the day because that is when the sound often travels far and becomes amplified.
Meanwhile, the weather is still warming up and the prey is awakening, as well.
Thus, energy can be invested in non-flight activities until it is thermally profitable to fly and to discover active prey.
Still, the ancient notion that the bird song is a powerful force of awakening (of us in the morning and of the year in its spring) might not be based simply on the pragmatic fact that humans tended to wake up around the same time birds did and the bird songs perhaps helped to cheer up and to become friskier after the long cold night.
(Remembering that, for many species, the bird song is a sort of a lullaby.)
Inherently, I hold to this human perception that birds are stirring everything and everyone with their song (on a level that surpasses nocturnal vs. diurnal species) and that there is more to it than advertising territory.
What if the birds are waking up the prey who might be able to hear them (in some taxa) or who would be vibrated out of their nightly inactivity…?
Not all invertebrates sleep during night and not all birds catch invertebrates that are moving very actively (day or night) but many bird species seem to sing in the morning regardless of their actual foraging behaviour (i.e., if some birds are simply waiting until the weather becomes warmer and prey will be out in the open, this strategy might mostly benefit bird species that do not glean invertebrates off some surfaces (at canopy level where it is warmer and where energy does not have to be invested in flight) and that hunt actively moving invertebrates while other bird species would not be as hampered by the gradually warming weather in the morning hours).
Also, is it not more confusing to announce one’s mating or territorial identity while everyone else is singing, as well? The individual voice disappears in the chorus and only the most sonorous species/individuals are heard at all (additionally, greater effort must be invested in the song because species, too, must compete with one another besides the intraspecific rivalry).
The mystery of vocalizations also refers to ungulates.
In many species, territorial/mating behaviour by males includes active vocalizations where the males either locate themselves in about one spot and vocalize to the point of utter exhaustion or where they strut about giving out loud, impressive performances.
These behaviours are through to be aimed at competitors or potential mates but their dramatic intensity and the near-fatal investment in the vocalizing activities suggest to me that there is more at stake because, overall, species have evolved alternatives to physical exertions (e.g., conflicts) that result in mortality.
While vocalization displays are one of such alternatives, their energy requirements can be as high as those of fighting to death, only they are felt over time.
Would the nature not have selected against the genes of those animals who utterly exhaust themselves and frequently even die?
Would a safer display not have ensued as a result?
Many species can get quite loud despite the fact their vocalizations announce their whereabouts to predators.
It seems to me that there is yet another underlying strategy to many of these hunting or mating vocalizations which make the risks worth it, and when I think about it, my mind is led to the studies of mythology wherein magic songs and magic rhythms (e.g., shamanic percussion) are used to bring about the desired outcomes be those health for oneself or for one’s offspring or success at hunting/war, or even fertility for the fields.
Some songs could even be sung to appeal to specific life forms (e.g., hunting songs that called upon the spirit of the prey species).
Recently I read a review article on sound perception in plants (which also touched upon the subject of vibrations and their impact on plant metabolism, plant growth and plant-plant or plant-interspecific communication) – see Demey, M.L. et al., 2023.
We are only beginning to grasp how sound and other vibrations can alter the physiochemical responses by those who experience them but apparently vibrations affect even unicellular organisms (not to mention our own cellular processes) who cannot perceive the sound itself through specialized receptors (as a particular pattern of waves).
Vibrations can modify metabolism and genetic transcription in living organisms, especially, if they do not occur as a constant background signal and, more so, if they are accompanied by psychological, physiological, hormonal reactions.
Thusly, by producing a specific sound, through the vibration alone, the world might actually change and if the hunter knew the song of the spirit of its prey, perhaps it meant that the song (soundwaves and vibrations) could appeal to the state of existence of the prey species (its mood, its intent, its current modus operandi) bringing this state into closer contact with the hunter and the hunter’s motivations.
Some wildlife photographers refer to ‘getting into zone’ which, according to them, is not limited to merely concealing their presence but sort of becoming one with the natural world on a level which should bring forth the wildlife encounters they have been looking forward to.
What if there is a world of probabilities of meeting one’s target or not meeting one’s target (be it prey or a mate, or desired health/reproductive outcome etc.) and these probabilities can be altered if one knew how to either get into the mode of their target or how to bring their target to the mode where both can meet?
It is known that vibrations can improve some outcomes (hatching rates in eggs, growth rates etc.) and they can impair some functions (also, hatching rates, growth rates etc.).
Sending out the right vibrations might make the organisms respond in a manner in which they are either augmented in their wellbeing and perhaps their activity level or they can be suppressed in their wellbeing and their activity level.
The right song might perhaps encourage hormonal production and fertility as well as fetal development and growth which is why it might be used in species which sing for mating/reproductive purposes.
The right song might flush the prey out because the prey becomes restless (not merely due to stress responses to hearing predator but due to the manner in which their body begins to function) or it might affect the prey in some other way which results in non-vigilant behaviour, loss of nimbleness or perhaps intensified odour etc.
Knowing the right song might alter the states/responses of living beings bringing them toward the magical intent of the ‘shaman’.
However, in many myths, even the whole world (including its abiotic elements that do not respond to vibration via metabolic pathways) is sometimes said to have been created with song (or if not the whole world, aspects of it).
Our Universe itself is the continuous vibration following its emergence into existence.
Similarly, we say prayers (or other, non-religious well-wishing formulas) in hopes to bring our intent toward the powers that can change our fortunes.
Songs have been used in some cultures to change the weathers.
Ancient Greek philosophers who were the first to come up with theories of atomism, surmised that atoms were the smallest particles falling downward in infinite universe and as they collided, things were born (compounds, microbodies, macrobodies) and when the atoms detached, things were disassembled and atoms were recombined.
Epicurus was one of such early atomists and he introduced the concept of ‘swerve’ to his theories, i.e., atoms do not simply move in a free fall but they are also enticed to change direction which would result in them bumping into one another and forming bodies.
We have come to a more thorough understanding of the principles guiding the motion of atoms (and, indeed, their constituents) and also the principles behind their aggregations, bonds, dissolution of said bonds etc.
But the deterministic concept of an atomic cause-sequence motion that is behind all that comes into existence and fades out of it, has captivated many minds who have asked – do we have intent or is our intent an illusion?
Namely, are we simply assigning arbitrary meaning to physical causes and consequences that govern the formation of our very existence or do we have an actual say in this process of falling and swerve?
Why am I referencing early atomism?
Because it is true that, regardless of intent of living beings, gods or even abiotic elements (which are animistic in some mythologies and in Hogwarts), vibration can alter how elements move.
For example, the simple act of singing sends vibrations into air where particles exist that begin to move differently under the influence of soundwaves.
Their altered movement, simultaneously, modifies the outcomes of this movement.
At this point, the song represents our intent (and it is modified by our identity) and it can be argued that, through the intent as a state and not a response, we can affect destiny (however, it can also be argued that the state is as much of a response to causalities as anything purely physical because it is produced from physical reactions).
Some of this movement might have been begun with an intent (e.g., an owl flying through the air to pursue prey it has heard rustling) but then the intent has been abandoned (the owl is long gone but the stir-up it caused still sets in motion the resulting processes in the particulate realm).
What if magic is repossessing (re-intenting) these causalities which have become void of intent and what if it can be achieved through singing/vibrating into them?
It is easier to perceive how vibrations/songs might alter actual physiology but what if it were also possible to direct the abiotic causalities by introducing vibrations that set the motion of particles to one’s will?
It is not an unfair game because having to sing in a specific manner (which calls forth the specific desired results) also means adjusting one’s song to this singing mode and thereby adjusting one’s own being (evolution) to the capability of producing such songs on a physiological but also psychological and hormonal level.
By producing magic, one becomes a product of magic and it is simply another aspect of how the world allows to be moulded while moulding us so that if we wish to interact with the world, we must recognize its inevitable right to interact with us; if we wish to shape the world, we must account for its shaping of us.
Perhaps, by singing upon of the dawn of the day, upon the spring of a new year or upon the conception of a new life, animals seek to vibrate it into a motion that will benefit them and their offspring.
Of course, this does not occur without practical considerations.
Nothing that I know of in nature holds only one function, everything is multifunctional, everything is intertwined.
If animals simply sang to bring about desired outcomes without otherwise benefitting from the act of singing on a practical level, they would expend too much energy and they would be ‘punished’ for wishing to be ‘gods’ (who do not necessarily need to hustle with survival).
However, thusly, the intent becomes embedded in the physical life cycle disallowing for the intent to become severed from environmental consequences.
In fact, these magicks would be dynamic in character.
The prey, too, for example, evolves to adjust to the magic songs and new approaches must be invented (keeping track of changes in prey’s ‘spirit’ – see below).
I believe it would be interesting to study whether animal songs alter their fortunes.
For example, do birds have higher hunting success after they have been singing actively or do they alter their vocalizations regarding some parameters depending on yesterday’s success, the stage of season, the weather patterns of the day, the type of prey they are intending to catch that day etc.?
Do deer dads bring about healthier offspring through song-transforming the world for them via improving their own sperm quality, fertility rates by their mothers but also via appropriating the intent behind the atomic causalities through a song which is so powerful that it can kill the father but which is also powerful enough to have its impact persist through the long winter until the calf is born and perhaps beyond that?
It would be extremely difficult to disentangle causes from effects and some responses from others but, ultimately, it would be exciting to test whether animals, too, attempt to use magic in the form of song/vibrations that affect the living and non-living matter to their intent.
It would be wondrous to assume that the events of this world are shaped by many life forms singing their own will into it and, through the collision of these songs and intents, our fates are born.
What if wildlife has become unsuccessful in the industrial world because the loud songs of our tehcnologies fail in good magic but they overwhelm the wild songs that are ancient and wise, and that fit together in one magical ecosystem?
What if the vibrations we force unto the nature affect their very fortunes in subtle, natural but also magical ways?
Why do I call it magic and why cannot it be replaced with technologies?
Because it is born of intent.
Intent is, certainly, the product of millions of years of physical existence on this planet which has led to specific wants, needs, affiliations, fears etc.
However, we come to experience intent also outside of physical factors that are directly affecting us (but out of, for example, social factors that shape our responses to situations and future prospects).
Or, e.g., we can experience intent upon influence of physical factors but to a disproportionate level (for example, we can feel extremely worried and concerned for someone else’s physical state although it is only affecting us directly to a minor level).
Also, we can form intent based upon our perceptions of the meaning of what is happening and our intent might reform our response (e.g., we might react with anger vs. with understanding based on our interpretation of the same circumstance).
Thus, these states have become somewhat detached from the immediate causalities and they have been reformed by our culture, our identity, our individuality whence we, in our turn, influence the physical world by first evoking respective states in ourselves and only then – through the power of these states – bring our intent into the outside world.
Our impact has been permeated by intent, by feeling, by care, by the awareness that we are alive.
We draw energy from this world not to produce an immediate response to an immediate stimulus but to produce an inner response through which our final intent is mediated.
It is a processed response based on values and hopes which can be self-based but they can also included our kin, societies etc.
It is how we tie our personal experiences to the world which encompasses them, it is how we personalize the world and allow for everyone else’s personalized realities to affect us.
And what are these identities if not our spirit which we have acquired through becoming who we are, through acquiring our cares and hopes?
But in order to call upon another’s spirit (i.e., to be a good hunter), one must know the other’s spirit – that is to say, one must be linked into the cares and hopes of the other.
Thusly, we become linked not merely physically but in our intent and in order to be successful, we must abide and allow ourselves to be transformed by intents of others.
And that, in my regard, is natural magic.
One of the differences between religion and nature’s magic would thereby lie within who moderates the diversity of intent.
In religion, people, wisely, trust their intent with omniscient entity who can ensure the concordance of everyone’s intent within the framework of some Larger Plot.
In nature, mutualism of intent is achieved through the moderation by evolution itself.
In order to affect the natural world, one has to integrate these powers within the world itself and the natural world can thence moderate the scope of intent through providing or not providing means of expression and regulating one’s success.
It is interesting that, if I were proven right, on the level of magic, a type of mutualism is achieved among otherwise agonistic species, e.g., between predators and prey (because in order to influence the ‘spirit’ of the prey, the predator must be influenced by the the said ‘spirit’ through integrating it into its own ecology but this means that in order to enact one’s intent (catch prey), one must act out of the integrated influences by the prey’s own intent).
It would be curious to study whether some competitive responses between, for example, singing/bugling/barking males in bird and deer species might be based upon some sound production parameters.
Namely, if someone sings their intent in a manner which is in discord (clashes) with the intent of another (thus, potentially bidding their magic against the magic of another much like in wizard battles), the subsequent agonistic interaction could be the result of the song itself and its qualities perceived on what I could only describe as aesthetic level (because they concern composition and harmony).
This could be tested with statistical methods, but probably nobody would wish to invest their scientific effort into trying to determine whether the natural world functions based on both physics and magicks.
Navajo Hunting Song
Comes the deer to my singing,
Comes the deer to my song,
Comes the deer to my singing.
He, the blackbird, he am I,
Bird beloved of the wild deer,
Comes the deer to my singing.
From the Mountain Black,
From the summit,
Down the trail, coming, coming now,
Comes the deer to my singing.
Through the blossoms,
Through the flowers, coming, coming now,
Comes the deer to my singing.
Through the flower dew-drops,.
Coming, coming now,
Comes the deer to my singing.
Through the pollen, flower pollen,
Coming, coming now,
Comes the deer to my singing.
Starting with his left fore-foot,
Stamping, turns the frightened deer,
Comes the deer to my singing.
Quarry mine, blessed am I
In the luck of the chase.
Comes the deer to my singing.
Comes the deer to my singing,
Comes the deer to my song,
Comes the deer to my singing.
Kalevala. Rune II
(After Väinämöinen, the demigod, hero and creator has felled a forest to give rise to agriculture leaving only a single slender birch tree.)
Wainamoinen, old and trusty,
Turned his face, and looked about him,
Lo! there comes a spring-time cuckoo,
Spying out the slender birch-tree,
Rests upon it, sweetly singing:
“Wherefore is the silver birch-tree
Left unharmed of all the forest?”
Spake the ancient Wainamoinen:
“Therefore I have left the birch-tree,
Left the birch-tree only growing,
Home for thee for joyful singing.
Call thou here, O sweet-voiced cuckoo,
Sing thou here from throat of velvet,
Sing thou here with voice of silver,
Sing the cuckoo’s golden flute-notes;
Call at morning, call at evening,
Call within the hour of noontide,
For the better growth of forests,
For the ripening of the barley,
For the richness of, the Northland,
For the joy of Kalevala.”
Kalevala. Rune XII
“Horribly the wizards threatened,
Tried to sink me with their magic,
In the water of the marshes,
In the mud and treacherous quicksand,
To my chin in mire and water;
But I too was born a hero,
Born a hero and magician,
Was not troubled by their magic.
“Straightway I began my singing,
Sang the archers with their arrows,
Sang the spearmen with their weapons,
Sang the swordsmen with their poniards,
Sang the singers with their singing,
The enchanters with their magic,
To the rapids of the rivers,
To the highest fall of waters,
To the all-devouring whirlpool,
To the deepest depths of ocean,
Where the wizards still are sleeping,
Sleeping till the grass shoots upward
Through the beards and wrinkled faces,
Through the locks of the enchanters,
As they sleep beneath the billows.”
References
Cronyn, G.W. Hunting Song (Navajo), The Path on the Rainbow, An Anthology of Songs and Chants from the Indians of North America, 1918, Sacred Texts, https://sacred-texts.com/nam/por/por31.htm (original publisher: Boni and Liveright)
Demey, M.L. et al. Sound perception in plants: from ecological significance to molecular understanding, Trends in Plant Science, Volume 28, Issue 7, 2023, Pages 825-840, ISSN 1360-1385, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2023.03.003.
Lönnrot, E. The Kalevala: The Epic Poem of Finland, translated by Crawford, J.M., 1888, published by Gutenberg. org, https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5186/pg5186-images.html#chap01
Notes by Ieva 