 Dear students, in this topic we shall discuss the animal signals and communication patterns. Stimulus which is transmitted from one animal to another is called a signal. The signal may be visual, chemical, tactile or auditory. Animals communicate by transmission and reception of signals. Animal communication is an essential element of interaction between the individuals. And it is used to transmit information among various members of the species. Dear students, the communication patterns are correlated with the type of the signal. So, the communication patterns include visual communication, olfactory communication, tactile communication and auditory communication based on the type of the signal whether it is visual signal, olfactory signal or tactile or touch signal and it is a sound or voice signal. Dear students, animals use different forms of communication in different environments and also depending on their own lifestyle. We shall take few examples of forms of communication. The diurnal animals which are active during the day communicate through visual or auditory signals. Whereas nocturnal animals which are active during the night do not have any importance of visual displays. But they use olfactory and auditory signals which work well in dark. Dear students, we shall discuss in detail a comprehensive example of animal communication through signals which is observed in the courtship behavior of fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. The courtship behavior of this fly constitutes a stimulus response chain. The response to each stimulus is itself a stimulus for the next behavior. This is called a stimulus response chain. Now, during the courtship behavior of Drosophila, a male identifies his female. This is through visual communication. Then male detects the chemicals which are released by the female by smell that is olfactory or chemical communication. After this, male approaches female and touches the female with his fore leg. This is tactile communication which depends on touch. Now, in the next step, male extends and vibrates his wings which produce sound. And it acts by visual auditory communication. As a result of this chain of communication, the communication becomes successful. Female also identifies that the male coming to her belongs to the same species so she becomes receptive and allows the male to attempt copulation. Dear students, communication is also used among animals for transfer of information. The information content transferred varies considerably. We shall take a comprehensive example of communication of information transfer in animals by taking the symbolic language of honey bees as an example. Honey bees share information about the location of food source. A honey bee finds a food source and that food source is near the hive that is within a range of 50 meters or less. It returns to its hive. Now, the second honey bee wants to communicate that the food source is near the hive. For this, the symbolic language of honey bees is used. This honey bee who has found food comes to its hive and moves in tight circles from side to side. This movement of honey bee is called round dance. This round dance motivates other bees to leave the hive and follow her for nearby food. When the honey bee finds a food source which is farther, in such a situation, returning honey bee will perform a waggle dance. In the waggle dance, it will swing half circle in one direction, then a straight run and then a half circle in opposite direction. This signal will communicate to the other members of species or the residents of that hive that where is the direction and the distance of food source. In this way, through symbolic language, communication happens in honey bees.