In the study of eusocial animals, where group coordination and communication are critical for survival, there is emerging but limited direct evidence that groups adapt their communication to accommodate partially or fully deaf individuals. While research specifically focused on this phenomenon is scarce, observations and indirect studies suggest that some species may exhibit behavioral adjustments...

Short answer: I’m not aware of any peer‑reviewed study that documents a nonhuman group systematically changing their communication specifically for a chronically deaf conspecific (e.g., consistently calling louder/closer to that individual or routinely switching to tactile signals only with that individual). Such cases are probably rare for two practical reasons: (1) confirmed deafness is hard to ...

Short answer
There is presently no peer-reviewed documentation showing that a non-human animal group systematically changes the way it signals (e.g. calls louder, approaches more closely, or switches to another sensory channel) in order to accommodate a congenitally or permanently deaf member. Searches of the main animal-behaviour, bio-acoustics and comparative-psychology databases (Web of Scie...

Adaptations to Deaf Individuals in Animal Groups

This is an interesting question about social accommodation in non-human species. Based on the available scientific literature, there appears to be limited documented evidence of systematic adaptations to deaf individuals in eusocial animals, but I can provide some relevant information:

Documented Examples

1. Bottlenose Dolphins: While no...

First, I need to recall any studies ...

Excellent and very specific question. This is a fascinating area that sits at the intersection of animal communication, social behavior, and ethology.

The short answer is: Direct, systematic evidence of a group adapting its acoustic communication for a deaf individual is extremely rare and difficult to obtain. However, there is compelling, albeit often anecdotal or inferred, evidence of soc...

This is a fascinating question about social adaptation to hearing impairment in non-human animals. While research on this specific topic is limited, there are some relevant observations and studies worth discussing.

Current Evidence

The research on how animal groups adapt to deaf or hearing-impaired individuals is indeed sparse, which explains why your search didn't yield many results. Howeve...

Short answer
No peer-reviewed study has yet shown that a non-human animal society consistently changes the way it signals because one particular member cannot hear (i.e. is congenitally or traumatically deaf, not merely inattentive). A thorough search of the behavioural, auditory-physiology and bio-acoustics literature reveals no documented case that fulfils all three of the following criteria:...

There is, as far as the published literature goes, no clear‐cut example outside of humans of a social animal “dialling up” its normal acoustic signals (or switching modality) to accommodate a congenitally or experimentally deaf group‐mate. Most of what we know about non‐human animals and hearing loss comes from three rather distinct bodies of work:

1. The Lombard effect and noise‐adaptation s...