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Captive Beluga Was Able To Mimic Speech

Posted by Unknown on from the must-eat-the-humans dept.

ananyo writes "'Who told me to get out?' asked a diver, surfacing from a tank in which a whale named NOC lived. The beluga's 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 began in 1984 and lasted for about four years, until NOC hit sexual maturity. NOC likely learned to imitate humans by listening to them speak underwater and on the surface. The whale's human-like calls are several octaves lower than normal whale calls, a similar pitch to human speech. Researchers trained NOC to 'speak' on command, and determined that he makes the sounds by increasing the pressure of the air that courses through his nasal 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. A recording of NOC's speech is embedded in the story. He sounds remarkably like a kazoo."

3 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. He was really saying... by rjshirts · · Score: 5, Funny

    "So long, and thanks for all the fish."

    1. Re:He was really saying... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Or he was saying:

      "Ahhh! Woooh! What's happening? Who am I? Why am I here? What's my purpose in life? What do I mean by who am I? Okay okay, calm down calm down get a grip now. Ooh, this is an interesting sensation. What is it? Its a sort of tingling in my... well I suppose I better start finding names for things. Lets call it a... tail! Yeah! Tail!..."

  2. So Let's See If I Got This Right... by avgjoe62 · · Score: 5, Funny

    We have a whale, another species on this planet, use human speech and the first thing he says is, essentially, "Get off my damn lawn, kid."

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