From Animal language (Wikipedia), there are many evidences that we can communicate with animals, at least to baboons and dolphins. There is a case that fish moving away when hearing a record of whale sounds, however no examples mentions about the sound we actually make to communicate with them. We can even dog whistle, but this doesn't mean the dogs thinks that there is another dog. In my opinion, the answer is yes, since once we can capture the sound with spectrograms we can ultimately generate it. Is there any research on this?
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3$\begingroup$ Consider the long history of using various calls and audible lures in hunting. $\endgroup$– jamesqfCommented Aug 3, 2017 at 18:59
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$\begingroup$ I used to work on a ranch and could imitate calves well enough that their mother's would come running over. $\endgroup$– canadianerCommented Aug 4, 2017 at 4:08
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$\begingroup$ @jamesqf can we make all the sound of the animal? $\endgroup$– OokerCommented Aug 4, 2017 at 16:33
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$\begingroup$ @Ooker: Who is "we"? Personally, I can't even make all the sounds that other humans make, like the trilled 'rrr' sound in Finnish, or the click (often represented by '!') in some African languages. And I certainly can't sing soprano :-) $\endgroup$– jamesqfCommented Aug 4, 2017 at 19:31
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$\begingroup$ @jamesqf well, but if you learn phonetics and spend ten years to learn opera, maybe you can? "We" means people. $\endgroup$– OokerCommented Aug 4, 2017 at 19:37
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The most clear and indisputable case of a human being generating a sound (using his own voice) that was mistakenly recognised by an animal as a sound made by a member of its own species is the case of Konrad Lorenz and the imprinting on birds.
Lorenz needs no introduction. However, in the case you don't know him, he is the father of modern ethology, together with Niko Tinbergen.
Among several other things, Lorenz studied and explained imprinting, specifically filial imprinting. According the Wikipedia link above:
Lorenz demonstrated how incubator-hatched geese would imprint on the first suitable moving stimulus they saw within what he called a "critical period" between 13–16 hours shortly after hatching. For example, the goslings would imprint on Lorenz himself (to be more specific, on his wading boots), and he is often depicted being followed by a gaggle of geese who had imprinted on him.
For imprinting in an object (the mother), some species depend on movement that object makes, some depend on the sound it makes and some depend on a mix of movement and sound. From Brittanica:
Lorenz demonstrated the phenomenon by appearing before newly hatched mallard ducklings and imitating a mother duck's quacking sounds, upon which the young birds regarded him as their mother and followed him accordingly. (emphasis mine)
During his life, Lorenz had several bird children, making several different youglings imprinting on him. As you can see in pictures like this one below, those animals will follow Lorenz (for the rest of their lives) as if Lorenz were their mother.
The funny thing is that, during some time after his early publications (but way before his Nobel Prize in 1973), some people had problems accepting Lorenz's discoveries, because they could not reproduce them.
It turned out that Lorenz was very effective in imprinting a lot of different bird species because of his uncanny ability of mimicking that bird species' sound, be it a goose, a chicken or a duck.
Of course, raising so many children has its problems:
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1$\begingroup$ He's an interesting man. Anyway, isn't that imprinting happens when the younglings see the first big object? Also, do you know other examples on well developed animals? $\endgroup$– OokerCommented Aug 3, 2017 at 14:46
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1$\begingroup$ @Ooker No, for most of bird species imprinting depends on the sound the "mother" makes, replying to the baby's call. Also, have in mind that, for the visual ones, they will not imprint in the first thing they see, but in something that's moving a certain way in a certain critical period. $\endgroup$– user24284Commented Aug 4, 2017 at 3:14
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$\begingroup$ I see. Do you know any other methods that they use? Smelling for example. And do you know any success on mimicking mature birds? $\endgroup$– OokerCommented Aug 4, 2017 at 11:09
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$\begingroup$ The problem regarding mimicking mature birds is that you cannot actually tell if they think that the sound comes from another member of their species. For instance, I like to imitate magpies, and they not only reply but sometimes approach me, showing curiosity. However, as they can clearly see me, it's very unlike that they think I'm a member of their species. $\endgroup$– user24284Commented Aug 4, 2017 at 12:34
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$\begingroup$ I think the Chinese room example works well here. Can we make a sound to a matured bird when being outside of the bird's eyes, so that it will react to the sound as if it comes from an unseen bird? $\endgroup$– OokerCommented Aug 4, 2017 at 16:31