Has there ever been a study of animals with complex vocalizations that looked for a Zipfian distribution and didn’t find one? (Including simulated monkeys on typewriters.)
Reminds me of the study where a researcher lived in a house specially built for human dolphin cohabitation for two years to conclude there were no signs of the dolphin attempting to learn or teach language skills, implying it has none.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Howe_Lovatt
At least crows have been decent enough to teach us their word for treats. Whether we want to know or not.
Was it that one?
Yes it was:
Peter, being an adolescent dolphin, frequently had sexual urges which disrupted his lessons, and taking Peter to a downstairs pool with two female dolphins proved to be a logistical issue for Lovatt. Eventually, Lovatt relieved Peter’s urges herself, stating “It wasn’t sexual on my part. Sensuous perhaps. It seemed to me that it made the bond closer. Not because of the sexual activity, but because of the lack of having to keep breaking. And that’s really all it was. I was there to get to know Peter. That was part of Peter … It would just become part of what was going on, like an itch, just get rid of that scratch and we would be done and move on.”