Current Events > Imagine, if you will, being mimicked by a killer whale.

(+) Yeah! (+)

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/killer-whale-learns-imitate-human-speech-dolphin-voice-a8185931.html

A killer whale has been taught by scientists to copy human speech.

The researchers were studying a 14-year-old female killer whale named Wikie, who was well-trained and had been taught how to copy behaviours in a previous study.

Wikie was recorded mimicking English words like hello, bye bye and one two, as well as the name of her trainer, Amy.

Killer whales use their blowhole to make noises, almost like speaking out of your nose, so we were not expecting it to be perfect, said Dr Jose Abramson, a researcher at the Complutense University of Madrid, who led the study.

But we were surprised by how close it was.

...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/talking-killer-whale-orca-1.4511743

Scientists have taught a captive killer whale to imitate human speech, and have recorded the female orca mimicking words including "hello" and "one two three."

Wikie, a 14-year-old captive-born orca at Marineland Aquarium, in Antibes, France, imitated the words well enough, some of the time, that they were recognized by six humans who heard recorded clips of its voice, report researchers in a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The humans were asked to identify which clips contained the word or words that Wikie was asked to imitate.

"We were surprised," said Jose Abramson, the researcher at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid who led the study. "We didn't have any idea that they could be capable of this."
---

Are you implying that I'm actually a killer whale? That's ridiculous hah..ha *nervously tugs collar*
---

Oh, I'd love to be mimicked by an orca. among other things
---

JustMonika posted...

Are you implying that I'm actually a killer whale? That's ridiculous hah..ha *nervously tugs collar*

---