Animal Listener

    Communication is one of the basic needs of all the living creatures in this world, without which survival is challenging. There are two parts to it – speaking and listening and both are required for effective communication. We humans can talk and listen to each other but imagine a world where we can even do the same with our animal friends around. I’m sure this will make this world even a better place to live.

Hello friends, my name is Dr. Fred Hunter, an animal behavior scientist at Richardson Nature Center in Minnesota, USA.

It’s a wonderful day in the year 2050. Yesterday, I invented a miracle pill after many trials which, once taken, will give the power to understand dog talk. I swallowed the pill to test it on me last night. If it works, my dream of helping the animals around the world will come true.

I woke up this morning after hearing, “I’m hungry, give me food!” repeatedly. I opened my eyes and looked around but found no one. Suddenly, I found my dog Lucy jumping and asking for food. I was shocked and surprised but then realized that my pill was working. I was able to understand my dog and felt crazy keeping my excitement inside. I didn’t show my happiness to my family as it was a secret project.

“Hey buddy, I’m able to understand you. Don’t tell anyone. Shhh….”, I said to Lucy and went to the kitchen to give him cereal.

I got ready for my morning jog and went out with Lucy. I didn’t know that another surprise was awaiting. I was able to understand other animals including cats and birds. I started jumping in the middle of the road, surprising other passersby.

Lucy also started jumping with me saying, “Why are you jumping, man! Have you gone crazy?” This embarrassed me, so I stopped jumping and came back home.

After completing my morning chores, I left for my laboratory in my convertible car. As I was thinking on how to reveal this exciting news to my boss, I heard from passing by sparrows that they had seen a group of poachers near Crystal Lake. I immediately called up the anti-poaching team about a possible attempt by the poachers at Crystal Lake.

I said, “Please send a team immediately, engage a few spy drones near the target location. We will be in touch with our walkie-talkies.”

I changed my driving direction towards the lake and kept my ears open for some more clues. I came to know that a herd of moose are also on the way to the lake from a running wild cat and updated the same to the team. After some time, I met the team a little distance away from the lake so that the poachers wouldn’t become alert.   

We looked at the video feed but no success. It seemed like the poachers were well camouflaged. We all started walking slowly forward without any clue and hoping for a mistake from them. As we were getting tense about not being able to track the poachers before they hurt the animals, I got a tip from my squirrel friend from the top of a tree. He mentioned that he saw the intruders beside the bushes beside the big aspen tree.

I instantly let the team know and attacked the three poachers just in time as they were about to fire. The officers immediately hand-cuffed them and took them away to the nearest jail.

The leader asked, “How do you know they were here?”

I said, “Just got an intuition,” and winked my eye towards the smiling squirrel at the tree top.