Talk to the animals! Today’s lesson: Penguin

Researchers in Italy have taken great strides toward decoding the language of penguins. According to scientists, the African “jackass” penguin has at least six distinct catchphrases: Four used by adults — which communicate emotions such as happiness, love and anger — and two exclusive to chicks and juveniles, both of which just apparently say, “I’m hungry.”

The study, conducted by extensively taping penguins at the Zoom Torino zoo and then comparing spectrographs with behavior, discovered that even though penguins have less complex vocal physiology than song birds, they get a lot of bang for the buck … or grunt.

“They have very sophisticated mechanisms to encode information in songs," said Dr. Livio Favaro, who led the research.

Speaking of … er, um … squawking of which, the jackass penguins owe their name to their unique vocal stylings, which indeed do sort of sound like donkeys.

But if the birds could speak (you know, like, people talk), they might add a word or two of vocabulary beyond “Hooray!” “Get away from me!” “Feed me!” and “You’re my soul mate.”

Perhaps something like “Help!”