The killer whale that can say 'hello' and 'bye bye'

A killer whale that can mimic words such as "hello" and "bye bye" is thought to be the first of its kind to copy human speech. The female learned to "speak" a handful of human words by copying a trainer at a marine park in France. The animal's repertoire includes the name "Amy" and "one, two, three". It can also blow raspberries.

Whales are among the few animals other than humans that can learn to produce a novel sound just by hearing it. "In mammals it is very rare," said Dr Josep Call of the University of St Andrews, a co-researcher on the study. "Humans obviously are good at it... Interestingly, the mammals that can do best are marine mammals." The researchers set out to find out whether killer whales could learn new vocalisations by imitating others. They studied a female named Wikie at Marineland Aquarium in Antibes, France. She was taught to speak human words through her blowhole and can be heard in recordings mimicking words such as hello and Amy, and counting one, two, three, using squawks, shrill whistles or raspberries. Killer whale 'dialects' Killer whales are known to live in groups with unique vocal "dialects". They may copy other members of their kind in the wild, although this needs to be tested "The killer whale that we studied in captivity was capable of learning vocalisations of other killer whales and also human vocalisations by imitating them," said Dr Call.

"Therefore this result suggests this is also a plausible explanation for how killer whales in the wild learn the vocalisations of other killer whales and how they develop their dialects."

source: www.bbc.com