Orcas are able to imitate human speech, proving once again why they're the most terrifying animal in the deep blue sea.
When they're not busy attacking sailing boats or mercilessly hunting great white sharks for sport, it would appear killer whales have been brushing up on their ability to mimic human speech.
According to a 2018 study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences and involving researchers from Germany, Spain, the UK and Chile, it was revealed that an orca was able to imitate sounds made towards them.
"We wanted to see how flexible a killer whale can be in copying sounds,” said Josep Call, professor in evolutionary origins of mind at the University of St Andrews and a co-author of the study, explained to The Guardian at the time.
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"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."
So how did they do it?
Using a 14-year-old orca named Wikie as their test subject, the group first trained her to imitate sounds made by her three-year-old calf, before moving on to orca sounds that she'd never heard before.
She was then exposed to a human making a series of orca sounds before saying six different words to her.
Which words was the orca able to imitate?
The 'short' and 'distinctive' words tested on Wikie included: hello, Amy, ah ha, one two and bye bye – all of which she was able to replicate.
Take a listen to the audio below to hear Wikie's attempts at speech and blowing raspberries:
Pretty impressive huh.
The orca's attempts at mimicking speech is a major talking point whenever the video resurfaces online, with viewers often debating how close the word replicate human speech.
"Ok, that second hello was a little demonic," wrote one person. "Was that really an orca, or the Devil speaking through a ghost box LOL The funniest and scariest thing EVER! That’s my day, can’t stop laughing my head off lol."
"When the killer whale said “bye bye” it sounded cute actually," added a second.
Does this now mean we can communicate with orcas?
Before anyone gets too ahead of themselves, it's important to note that Wikie's ability to mimic sounds does not mean she understands what the words mean.
"We have no evidence that they understand what their ‘hello’ stands for," Cal told the outlet.
Nevertheless, it still remains an impressive feat from the marine species.
Topics: Animals, Environment
Brenna Cooper