The whale that talked - Captive beluga was able to mimic speech
http://www.nature.com/news/the-whale-that-talked-1.11635Who told me to get out? asked a diver, surfacing from a tank in which a whale named NOC lived. The belugas caretakers had heard what sounded like garbled phrases emanating from the enclosure before, and it suddenly dawned on them that the whale might be imitating the voices of his human handlers.
The outbursts described today in Current Biology1 and originally at a 1985 conference began in 1984 and lasted for about four years, until NOC hit sexual maturity, says Sam Ridgway, a marine biologist at National Marine Mammal Foundation in San Diego, California. He believes that NOC learned to imitate humans by listening to them speak underwater and on the surface.
NOC the talking whale
NOC shows off his ability to make human-like sounds.
A few animals, including various marine mammals, songbirds and humans, routinely learn and imitate the songs and sounds of others. And Ridgways wasnt the first observation of vocal mimicry in whales. In the 1940s, scientists heard wild belugas (Delphinapterus leucas) making calls that sounded like children shouting in the distance2. Decades later, keepers at the Vancouver Aquarium in Canada described a beluga that seemed to utter his name, Lagosi.
Ridgways team recorded NOC, who is named after the tiny midges colloquially known as no-see-ums found near where he was legally caught by Inuit hunters in Manitoba, Canada, in the late 1970s. His human-like calls are several octaves lower than normal whale calls, a similar pitch to human speech. After training NOC to 'speak' on command, Ridgways team determined that he makes the sounds by increasing the pressure of the air that courses through his naval cavities. They think that he then modified the sounds by manipulating the shape of his phonic lips, small vibrating structures that sit above each nasal cavity.
We do not claim that our whale was a good mimic compared to such well known mimics as parrots, but it is an example of vocal learning nonetheless, the paper concludes. It seems likely that NOCs close association with humans played a role in how often he employed his human voice, as well as in its quality.
tk2kewl
(18,133 posts)magical thyme
(14,881 posts)Alex the African Grey proved that they understand speech, simple grammar, abstract concepts such as time, and more. Alex learned a huge vocabulary, could identify objects by color and the material they were made of, understood numbers, requested his meals by contents (asking for wheat, corn, etc.). He spoke in "pidgen English." He made up words for things, for example renaming brazil nuts "rock crackers."
flamingdem
(39,328 posts)having had a Red Naped Amazon who noticed so many things and played them back verbally and behaviorally. I wonder if there is a new Alex out there or if he was just especially capable? I want another one because they are good friends to have around, if a bit destructive, chomp chomp
magical thyme
(14,881 posts)along Alex's lines. I remember reading at one point that Alex was helping with them.
It's such a shame that he died so relatively young. I also remember reading in an article that Dr. Pepperdine said that evening when they went through their normal routine, she said good night to Alex and he said (paraphrasing), "Night. Night. Here tomorrow?" and she answered, "Yes Alex, I'll be here tomorrow." And he said, "I love you." And she answered "I love you too Alex."
He had just passed a health exam 2 weeks earlier and their was no apparent cause of death in his necropsy. But it's almost as if he knew...
flamingdem
(39,328 posts)That's frustrating, they're supposed to live a long life.
AllenVanAllen
(3,134 posts)flamingdem
(39,328 posts)AllenVanAllen
(3,134 posts)AllenVanAllen
(3,134 posts)from Urban Dictionary:
1. whalecore: A genre used to describe Mastodon's 2004 concept album, Leviathan, which is based on the story of Moby Dick.
Frustrated that they were unable to fit the album into existing genres, fans of the band coined the term to point out the inherent humor in dedicating a full-length metal album to the topic of a whale. The album can be most accurately described as a mix of heavy metal, metalcore, and progressive metal.
3. Whalecore: Whalecore is a genre of music. Known for combining elements of mainly progressive metal with whale song. "Mastodon aren't real Whalecore, they don't have any singing whales you prick!"
DollarBillHines
(1,922 posts)AllenVanAllen
(3,134 posts)leftyohiolib
(5,917 posts)he'll come up and make noises similar to that at us
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)a very distinct "Ma-ma" that he only used with me. Everybody else was greeted with "Mah". I referred to myself as Mama when talking to him, and I truly believe he understood that to be my name.
When I went on vacation to France for 10 days he would stomp up and down the hallway calling "Ma-ma! Ma-ma!" - my assistant thought it was hysterical. She did what she could to reassure him, telling him that Mama was coming home soon. But he did his little fussing thing every day.
Laxman
(2,419 posts)that whales & dolphins occupy 70% of the Earth's surface and humans are limited to 30%. They communicate with high frequency and low frequency signals that can travel incredible distances through the water. I have no doubt about the potential intelligence of these creatures and the fact that they may be far better equipped to live on this planet than we are.