Whale Hello: Orcas Can Imitate Human Speech, Researchers Find
A killer whale attempting to say "hello" or "Amy" did not sound as clear as, say, a parrot. But scientists found that the whales could repeat human vocalizations with some success.
by Camila Domonoske
Jan 31, 2018
2 minutes
Say hello to an orca, and it might say hello back — or at least try to.
An international team of researchers, working with two orcas at an aquarium in France, have found that the whales were able to replicate the sounds of human speech, including words like "hello" and "bye-bye," as well as series of sounds like "ah ah."
The orcas could
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