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Killer Whales Caught On Tape Speaking Dolphin
sciencehabit writes Two years ago, scientists showed that dolphins imitate the sounds of whales. Now, it seems, whales have returned the favor. Researchers analyzed the vocal repertoires of 10 captive orcas, three of which lived with bottlenose dolphins and the rest with their own kind. Of the 1551 vocalizations these seven latter orcas made, more than 95% were the typical pulsed calls of killer whales. In contrast, the three orcas that had only dolphins as pals busily whistled and emitted dolphinlike click trains and terminal buzzes, the scientists report in the October issue of The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. The findings make orcas one of the few species of animals that, like humans, is capable of vocal learning (video)—a talent considered a key underpinning of language."
"Hey buddy. Hey pal. You wanna come swim in my tank? Come jump on over, my tasty friend. We have lots of fish to fill your delicious belly."
Hmm.. Language learning could as well be within-species. Sounds more interesting here that dolphins and orcas can communicate spontaneously given close quarters.
Aren't Orcas dolphins?
All the more reason to free these suckers...god damn.
I get it though, they're no longer suited to living in the wild, etc etc. Can't we help them out with some head-mounted lasers or something?
anymore... Put away his Orca on a stick corn dog....
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Just sayin'.
These are also the only mammals (or anything for that matter) that have blowholes. They're both mammals. And both have tails that are flat horizontally rather than vertically. They both also are capable of being thankful to other species when it applies.
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
Are they thanking us for all the fish?.. I'm worried now...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
I wonder if they speak it with an accent, like when I try to speak a little Spanish. :-P
I guess this doesn't seem all that surprising (on the surface, to someone who admittedly doesn't know much about it).
A huge amount of their brains is geared towards processing sound because they use sonar. Is picking up some dolphin sounds really that much of a stretch?
I mean, I can haltingly say "dos cerveza por favor" and "ron negro con jugo de pina" ... and my wife assures me I'm an idiot.
Whales and the like are smart enough to hunt in packs. I can't even dribble a basketball very well. :-P
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
TFS seems to imply some divide between dolphins and whales, where orcas fall into the latter. Orcas and dolphins share the same subfamily.
For comparison, humans and chimps share the same subfamily, and there are clear examples of similarities between us (assuming most of you are human) and chimps. Thus it's not exactly surprising to find similarities between orcas and dolphins.
They probably look at us and think: "There but for the lack of thumbs go I"
Taped evidence is inadmissable without a warrant.
Orin Hatch has a blowhole, but I'm not entirely certain he's a mammal.
Humans are bipedal creatures from Earth, and the third most intelligent species on that planet, surpassed only by mice and dolphins. Originally thought to have evolved from proto-apes, humans may in fact be descendants of Golgafrinchan telephone sanitizers, account executives, and marketing analysts who were tricked out of leaving their home planet to arrive on the planet Earth in two million BC.
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A talent shared by other species (parrots, for example).
I wondered if the errant pings from MH370 that various navies were chasing might be immitations of the actual FDR sonar pinger made by some sea creatures. Dolphins (or something) hear the real pinger and then figure out that if they imitate the noise, people in ships will come over to 'play'.
Have gnu, will travel.
Intelligence can be dangerous if not rounded out. Dogs probably look at us and think "If I had those, I would invent hand tools and make soooooooo much bacon."
It's a miracle humans got anything done after that mark.
For the things a cat typically considers intelligence, I bet that cats come out on top, too.
In other news, parrots who live with humans learn to speak human languages and some chimpanzees living with smokers have even learned to smoke cigarettes.
I guess those things are bound to happen when two species hang together when their anatomies allow to.
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Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
I'm always amazed at how WE'RE always amazed (or supposed to be) that animals can do things that we do.
There are fewer and fewer and fewer things that are the realm of humans alone (and even then, it's generally only by scale, rather than actual ability).
We're animals. They are animals. We all do things like "try to sound like other animals we hear".
Orca: What do you mean "So long, and thanks for all the fish"? What aren't you telling me?
Hullooo, zeeba neighba!
Whose turn is it to alert Japan so they can kill more whales to investigate this?
Last time I checked killer whales aren't actually whales. I want the last five minutes back.
Are they sure it was dolphins speaking whale and not a blue tang that sounds like Ellen Degeneress?
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
You can see their lips move.
"Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
All megafauna is intelligent or it wouldn't have made it this long.
All megafauna have a combination of adaptive traits for their environment, some of which may be traits that we'd categorize under "intelligence". Intelligence isn't a scalar value. We might be able to measure its components by providing tasks that measure the presence and efficiency of specific capabilities of the brain and call the geometric distance from the 0-point "intelligence", but different animals will fall within different places in that multi-dimensional space. Some animals will have better scores than humans, in some dimensions. I'd posit that humans would have the greatest geometric distance from "0", though.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Wait a minute... did Douglas Adams get a writing credit for the final episode of (rot13 spoiler alert) Onggyrfgne Tnynpgvpn?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
What is with this new "humans are dumb" nonsense? Anything a cat can do a human can out-think and do better. Which is why any cat that is a physical threat to us or competes with us is endangered. They may fit their niche better than a human would but that does not make them more intelligent than a human.
The humans are dumb nonsense comes from the fact that animals are smart enough to achieve equilibrium with their environment while humans pave a path of destruction anymore they go.
While humans are smart in many ways, greed is a fault that has gotten completely out of control on a mostly global scale. As a society based around capitalism and material possession you would expect the happiest people to rich, this is decidedly not so. It is exceedingly rare for someone who is rich with money to also be happy. The happiest people achieve balance in their lives. Enough money to make life comfortable and they are good to go. This is much like most animals in the rest of our ecosystem.
Pickup lines by male Orcas.
"Hey, Baby, you've heard about Orcas, right? We're whales, Honey, and I do mean that in every way. Yeah. Once you've gone black and white, you never go back. And white."
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
I'm probably late with this post, but orcas are the largest dolphin. This news really is big dolphins imitate little dolphins. I've also heard of large apes imitating the hand communication of some smaller apes.
The humans are dumb nonsense comes from the fact that animals are smart enough to achieve equilibrium with their environment while humans pave a path of destruction anymore they go.
In other words, just more hippie nonsense.
Reminds me of a cartoon I saw: 2 dolphins swimming along & one says to the other, "Don't look now but here come those ghastly dolphin-friendly tuna". I wonder how much they can have to say and how intelligent they can be, given their environment. "Hi, what are you up to?" "Oh just swimming, you know. You?" "Yeah, swimming. Where's Derek?" "Swimming." "Doing anything this weekend." "Swimming." "How's the kids' new school working out?" "Swimmingly." "Have you eaten?" "I've just had a herring and wrack salad, thanks." "Ah. Fancy a swim?" "OK."
Parrots caught on tape speaking 'doorbell.'
Because the doorbell was near the parrot's cage and it 'learned' to make that sound.
This is similar. Why do people treat it as so remarkable?
To overthrow us.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
I have dogs that speak pig words and human words. We have a large pack of livestock working dogs that do guarding and herding on our pastured pig farm. The dogs have learned some of the sounds the pigs make to drive the pigs when herding. This makes them more effective at doing their job. They also know and use some human words both with us and with each other. We also use whistles, clicks and hand signs to communicate. There is a lot more interspecies communications going on than scientists realize in their limited ivory tower view of the world. It is mildly amusing when they "discover" reality. Those of us out working in the real world have known many of these things for millennia.
The humans are dumb nonsense comes from the fact that animals are smart enough to achieve equilibrium with their environment while humans pave a path of destruction anymore they go.
Why is it so many people see humans as not part of nature?
If we build a dam, we are damaging the ecology. If a family of beavers build a dam, it is all natural. If we grow a cow and slaughter it in a slaughterhouse, it is barbaric and unnatural. Yet when a lioness brings down a buffalo that is all fine and part of the circle of life. Why is a piece of plastic artificial, but a piece of wood carved by a beaver is not?
In my opinion humans are animals that change their environment around them to suit their needs. Just like a bird that makes a nest to care and protect its young. A city is much more comfortable for us than a forest. An airplane is a tool to get around just like a spider that builds a sail out of a web to use wind to get across a river.
Yes, we are VERY good at what we do. With our usurpassed intelligence and social hierarchies we have tames the most hostile of environments. All this "destruction" you accuse humanity of is just nature rearanging itself to another state.
I wish more people were bothered by the fact that they are doing experiments at all on captive Orcas and Dolphins.
Most captive Orcas aren't in facilities because they've been injured (unlike zoos and aquariums which work on rehabilitation and reintroduction). Orcas are often ripped away from their pods. Many of them get violent and kill trainers (and rightfully so). You can't put something that travels the ocean in a fish tank. Orcas only live to be about 25 in captivity where in the while, they live to be 50 ~ 60.
The documentary Black Fish talks a lot about the problems with captive Orcas. You should never go to Seaworld or other sea parks. Don't give them any money. They are shit shops that destroy these beautiful animals.
Intelligence as a survival trait, we (at least collectively) are second to none.
A few animals might be able to use simple tools and solve simple problems
but doing things like surviving in a hostile environment, getting out of a trap,
etc.. no other animals even gets close. No other animal can survive equally
as well in the desert and a blizzard. No other animal has mastered fire,
weapons, or escaping from a deadly situation better than humans.
Being able to escape a deadly situation is probably one of the best universal
tests of intelligence for living organisms.
Animals do not achieve an equilibrium by choice. They just die of mass starvation whenever they exceed the carrying capacity of the local environment.
The humans are dumb nonsense comes from the fact that animals are smart enough to achieve equilibrium with their environment while humans pave a path of destruction anymore they go.
Says anyone who doesn't have beavers on their property.
Animals do not have any innate instinct towards living in equilibrium with their environment. If they did, imported species wouldn't overrun their new homes (ask Australians how well cane toads and rabbits are finding a "natural balance"). All animals will do what is necessary to breed to the maximum their environment will allow, even if it is catastrophic to that environment. Humanity is unusual only in the sense of our extreme adaptability to differing climatic regions and the fact that - with the use of tools - were have no natural predators to keep our numbers in check.
If anything, humanity is the most environmentally-friendly of creatures, because we alone consider (albeit not often enough) the consequences of our actions upon the rest of the world and sometimes work against our own immediate interests for the betterment of the world at large.
Which is not to excuse our rapine habits, of course; we as a species are a danger to the current natural balance. But let's not kid ourselves; no other animal would be any better.
If we build a dam, we are damaging the ecology. If a family of beavers build a dam, it is all natural.
Yes. That's right. Because when we build a dam, we hold back a massive shitload of water and flood gigantic regions. When a beaver builds a dam, it holds back relatively little water and floods small regions. Instead of covering the land with deep water, it makes a swampy area which builds up biomass rapidly.
If we grow a cow and slaughter it in a slaughterhouse, it is barbaric and unnatural. Yet when a lioness brings down a buffalo that is all fine and part of the circle of life.
Yes, that's a big nonsensical. I do think there is something to be said for avoiding cruelty, however. I think we can improve upon nature, with sufficient study and care. On the other hand, nature as we know it is a system of if not biostasis, at least punctuated biostasis. It's been self-perpetuating for some cycles now. It's a thing that would have continued without us, and it's what would go on if we weren't here. Perhaps we could imagine new names for it, but it's still a useful concept.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
In other words you grew up in a large urban environment and have never actually seen nature let alone understand it and all your knowledge of the wild comes from Disney movies.
Nature does not "achieve" equilibrium. Equilibrium is an emergent property (and an illusion) of having everything grabbing anything it can and killing anything it can get away with. If nature actually reached equilibrium evolution would cease and no species would ever spread. Wild animals regularly breed themselves into starvation. I encourage to read into why hunting seasons are a thing.
If I'm so smart, and my cat is so dumb, why am I the one opening a can of tuna every night? ... and then putting it on the floor and standing well back, in case her intense gaze and licking-of-lips isn't because I'm holding said can?
Don't blame me, it's usually 2 in the morning when I post
Because you value the companionship and sense of worth it gives you. "If I'm so smart and my car is so inanimate then why do I put so much effort into its existence?"
When cats figure out how to catch, can and distribute tuna you might have a point.
You'll never catch me going through the doors of one of those revolting places. They should be shut down and the captive animals rehabilitated and returned to the wild. The ones which were captive-born are a more difficult problem, and may need to be released into a constrained area (a fjord with a netted sea connection. perhaps) for an extended period of rehabilitation and time to form a stable pod and learn their natural environment.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"