Animal communication as entertainment

Though animal communication has always been a topic of public comment and attention, for a period in history it surpassed this and became sensational popular entertainment. From the late 1700s through the mid 19th century, a succession of pigs and various other animals were displayed to the public in for-profit performances, boasting the ability to communicate with their owners (often in more than one language), write, solve math problems, and the like. One poster dated 1817 shows a group of "Java sparrows" who are advertised as knowing seven languages, including Chinese and Russian. One pig of the era was so famous that it performed for royalty, and an obituary upon its death claimed that it made more money than any actor or actress of the same time; a fact that, whether strictly true, was at least believable to contemporary readers. By the late 1840s the fad had died down considerably. While the occasional appearance by a "learned" animal continued into the radio and television eras, it was by then generally understood that feats such as using cards to spell words, barking or tapping a hoof to solve equations, and the like were the products of training rather than actual communication. Though the tradition continues to this day on the "Stupid Pet Tricks" segment of Late Night with David Letterman, it seems likely that the era of trained pigs entertaining the crowned heads of Europe are over.