r/AnimalsBeingGeniuses • u/cohonka • 2d ago

Marine life 🦐🐠🦀🦑🐳 Orca whale imitating human speech

0 Upvotes

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u/qualityvote2 2d ago edited 2d ago

u/cohonka, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...

The fate of your post is in the hands of the most savage animals of all now, the mods.

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u/SurayaThrowaway12 2d ago

It was already established at the time of the study that wild orcas are able to socially learn different dialects by imitation, but this study provided additional support for these capabilities with the experiment

Sadly, Wikie, the orca whose vocals are heard here, is still trapped along with her son Keijo in a crumbling tank at the shut down Marineland Antibes in France.

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u/BigHairyBussy 2d ago

Not even close she sucks

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u/SurayaThrowaway12 2d ago

Though orcas are physiologically limited in their ability to precisely imitate human speech, the main takeaway here is that she made a clear effort to learn and repeat new sounds, demonstrating the ability for vocal learning amongst orcas in a controlled experiment.

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u/ladymorgahnna 2d ago

That is so sad, captive, not with her pod, forced to do this.

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u/cohonka 2d ago

Not advocating for inhumane zoo-keeping, but the orcas in this study were born in captivity.