I think people can already understamd animals we are regularly exposed to quite well. Imagine you are in a park and see a dog running directly toward you. You k

I think people can already understamd animals we are regularly exposed to quite well. Imagine you are in a park and see a dog running directly toward you. You know almost instantly whether it wants to play or is being aggressive. Same thing with cats and birds among people who have been around them. The body language of play seems pretty universal, and mammals have a propensity for snuggling together to conserve warmth that probably relates to other social behaviors like grooming. If you put two young mammals of different species together, they generally play and cuddle with each other, so there is already alot of precedent for interspecies communication, and what seems to be an inherant drive to communicate.