FRANCE (WFLA/NBC) – A 16-year-old captive orca living in a French marine theme park can be heard in recordings mimicking human words.
Wikie can be heard mimicking words such as “hello,” “Amy” and counting “one, two, three.”
Scientists believe basic “conversations” with Wikie may one day be possible.
“Yes, it’s conceivable… If you have labels, descriptions of what things are,” said Dr. Jose Abramson, from Complutense de Madrid University.
Wild killer whales are known to live in groups with different “dialects,” which are learned sounds used for communication and are kept within a population and passed on to future generations of whales.
Wikie is believed to be the first orca whale to mimic human speech.WHAT OTHERS ARE CLICKING ON RIGHT NOW: