 Are the sounds made by animals just an expression of their feelings or instincts? Can we really call them 'music'? Biologists tell us that a robin singing in a hedge is in fact claiming territory and warning other males to keep clear - hardly the equivalent of a song by Schubert, is it?  But perhaps that is not the whole story. In Terence Malick's wonderful film The Thin Red Line, there is an eerie scene where a huddled group of soldiers, most of whom are about to die, look up into a tree and see a group of fruit bats staring back down at them. The fruit bats know nothing of the soldiers' fear - but neither can the soldiers understand the inner world of these strange animals. Perhaps there is something more to birdsong than simple territorial possessiveness. Will we ever be able truly to enter into the minds of animals and be sure? Next Chapter Introduction |
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