Scientists have taught a whale to the words of human speech

2018-01-31 11:06

Scientists have taught a whale to the words of human speech
Killer whales were able to mimic the sound of human speech: living in the aquarium, the female has learned to pronounce some words in English.

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Orcas are among the most intelligent marine mammals, they are well learning, and therefore often kept in captivity and participate in a water show, reports Rus.Media. In natural conditions they live in small family groups and communicate actively, including with the help of sounds and different populations even be a variety of own dialects. Once alone, they often compensate the lack of communication from contact with other creatures is well-known for their impersonations of dolphins.

But even more impressive skills demonstrates a 16-year-old orca Wiki (Wikie), one of four contained in the aquarium Marineland in the French Antibes. She was born in captivity and regularly participates in experiments to study the behavior of these animals. After she learned the command “repeat”, and Vicky has learned to mimic the sound of smacking lips, difficulty, and even some of the words of human speech: “Hello” (hello), “poka” (bye-bye) and some initial numbers.

The authors note the remarkable learning capacity of their pupils, which required only 4 to 17 attempts to examine the new man’s word is clear, only its sound. But no matter how smart was not a whale, it is, of course, does not understand the meaning of this sound simulation. But in nature, these skills allow these animals to learn the dialect of not only their own flock, but also those of others with whom they have to communicate.