This killer whale can 'talk', it said 'hello'!
The research found the killer whale, orca, to have the capability of mimicking human speech!
Wikie the killer whale, said 'hello' in a high-pitched, eerie, and distinct sound. It's true!
An interesting research conducted by an international team of researchers from France has found that killer whales (orcas) are capable of replicating the sounds of human speech, including words like "hello" and "bye-bye," as well as series of sounds like "ah ah."
The study was published yesterday in the proceedings of the Royal Society B.
In the above video, a high-pitched, eerie, and distinct sound of the killer whale is calling the name "Amy," along with imitating other sounds like "one-two," "one-two-three". You can't miss this!
About the research
The team of researchers has been working with 2 orcas at an aquarium, where they found that if you say hello to an orca, it may say it back -- or at least try to.
The orcas could also imitate a human blowing a raspberry, or copy the sound of another orca, scientists said.
How was the research conducted?
- The researchers involved working with an orca named Wikie, who had already been trained to copy behaviours
- A trainer would make a specific gesture, and Wikie knew she was supposed to copy whatever another orca had just done! Smart Wikie!
- They started by presenting her with sounds she already knew how to make on command: like a noisy breath or a high-pitched peeping sound
- Then they introduced 'novel sounds' that she had never been trained to make before
- Some of these sounds were orca sounds, which Wikie would copy either from her calf -- Moana, or from a recording
- She might hear a squeak like a creaky door, a wolf-whistle-esque siren, or a noise like an elephant call -- sounds she had never been heard making on her own
What was inferred from the research?
Scientists concluded that the research suggests that whales could be learning vocal patterns from each other in the wild.
"We are interested in the possibility that other species also have cultural processes," the study's lead author, José Zamorano-Abramson, told The New York Times.
Although the sounds are still killer whale noises; they aren't as recognizable as, say, a parrot imitating human speech.
But the researchers compared audio spectrogram of the original and imitation sounds and tested the audio on human listeners who had to separate random pairings and matched pairings.
They concluded Wikie had made "recognizable copies," albeit not "perfect copies."
The research involved orcas interacting with trainers, making noises in the air instead of in the water -- a very different environment from what orcas in the wild would find as they hear each other vocalize and, perhaps, learn "dialects" from each other.
But that's a strength, not a weakness, argue scientists.
"We wanted to see how flexible a killer whale can be in copying sounds," co-author Josep Call told The Guardian.
"We thought what would be really convincing is to present them with something that is not in their repertoire -- and in this case, 'hello' [is] not what a killer whale would say," added Josep.
Other animals that can mimic!
Wikie is not the first animal to have managed the feat of producing human sounds: dolphins, elephants, parrots, orangutans and even beluga whales have all been captured mimicking our utterances, although they use a range of physical mechanisms to do so.
Noc, the beluga whale, made novel use of his nasal cavities, while Koshik, an Indian elephant jammed his trunk in his mouth: resulting in the pronouncement of Korean words ranging from "hello" to "sit down" to "no"!
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