Beluga Whales can mimic human voices!

Robotech Master · Oct 24, 2012

http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog...ive beluga had learned to mimic human voices/

Imagine the surprise among researchers when they discovered that what appeared to have been a human conversation near the beluga whale enclosure was actually the voice of the captive mammal. The accompanying audio clip is a sample of the whale's mimicry of human speech, and it's sure to inspire smiles, laughter, disbelief, or even awe among listeners.

The study was recently published in Current Biology under the title "Spontaneous human speech mimicry by a cetacean."

Of that initial discovery in 1984, study co-author Sam Ridgeway, of the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program, told National Geographic: "You could hear there was a conversation, but you couldn't make out what they were saying."

The conversation was heard several times and the source remained a mystery until a human diver told researchers he had heard what sounded like a request to get out of the water. The voice turned out to be from NOC, which had formed the word "out" and repeated that word several times while the diver was in the water.

This began after NOC had spent seven years in captivity.

Researchers then embarked on their study, and recordings revealed that the white whale had learned to speak with human-like frequencies and rhythms.

In the wild, beluga whales are highly social and communicate in a language of clicks, whistles, and clangs.

However, they have been known to mimic other sounds.

As for captive belugas, this might not be the only evidence of one of the small whales attempting to mimic human speech.

About 15 years ago, staff at Vancouver Aquarium suggested that a 15-year-old beluga had uttered its name, "Lagosi."

NOC lived among dolphins and socialized with two female belugas. His spontaneous mimicry of human voices subsided after about four years, when he became sexually mature.

The study concluded: "We do not claim that our whale was a good mimic compared to such well-known mimics as parrots or mynah birds. However, the sonic behavior we observed is an example of vocal learning by the white whale. It seems that NOC's close association with humans played a role in how often he employed his human voice, as well as in its quality."
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Neat! You can hear an audio clip at the link. Kinda reminds me of that dolphin from SeaQuest DSV.

El Chup · Oct 24, 2012

Beluga whales can talk eh? Who woulda thunk it. Maybe MF can get them to pilot the submarines into space!

frontline · Oct 24, 2012

This is incredible. Oh how damned cool is this. Sorry but I have always been fascinated by why dolphins and whales. Damn this is exciting. I've always thought that they would be capable of this.

Oh and yes this brings to my the Farside comic panel as well.

gul · Oct 24, 2012

I wonder whether it's accurate for the article to suggest it was mimicry. Perhaps it was actual language acquisition. We already know that they have language ability, why couldn't a whale that can make the right sounds learn to actually speak a human language?

Diacanu · Oct 24, 2012

Well, I always knew we probably sound dumb to animals, now, we finally hear an impression.

And, it's as I always imagined, it's a variation on Charlie Brown's teacher.

Fisherman's Worf · Oct 24, 2012

It's obvious that whales and dolphins use these sounds to communicate with each other (and possibly attempting to communicate with us), but that sounded nothing like human speech. I think this is probably an instance of hearing what we want to hear, much like with ghost hunters tweaking audio recordings of nothing and somehow hearing words.

Don't get me wrong, it would be awesome if we were able to communicate with whales and dolphins.

Ancalagon · Oct 24, 2012

sounding now/old songs/deep water/no-Great Voices/no-Shark/old songs/new songs

Miss Shark/Miss Shark/Miss Shark/Miss Shark/Shark/Shark/Shark

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Beluga Whales can mimic human voices!

Robotech Master '

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Beluga Whales can mimic human voices!

Robotech Master '

El Chup Fuck Trump Deceased Member Git

frontline Hedonistic Glutton Staff Member Moderator

gul Revolting Beer Drinker Administrator Formerly Important

Diacanu Comicmike. Writer

Fisherman's Worf I am the Seaman, I am the Walrus, Qu-Qu-Qapla'!

Ancalagon Scalawag Administrator Formerly Important

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