'Hello!' Says the Human. 'Hello!' Pipes the Orca Right Back. (theguardian.com)

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'Hello!' Says the Human. 'Hello!' Pipes the Orca Right Back. (theguardian.com)

Posted by msmash on Wednesday January 31, 2018 @06:40AM from the omg dept.

A human greets an orca with a "Hello!" "Hello!" responds the orca. A new research shows, the orcas have been able to imitate human speech, in some cases at the first attempt, saying words such as "hello", "one, two," "Amy", and "bye bye." From a report: The study also shows that the creatures are able to copy unfamiliar sounds produced by other orcas -- including a sound similar to blowing a raspberry. Scientists say the discovery helps to shed light on how different pods of wild killer whales have ended up with distinct dialects, adding weight to the idea that they are the result of imitation between orcas. The creatures are already known for their ability to copy the movements of other orcas, with some reports suggesting they can also mimic the sounds of bottlenose dolphins and sea lions. [...] Wikie is not the first animal to have managed the feat of producing human sounds: dolphins, elephants, parrots, orangutans and even beluga whales have all been captured mimicking our utterances, although they use a range of physical mechanisms to us to do so.

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So long and thanks for all the fish. by jellomizer · 2018-01-31 06:45 · Score: 5, Funny

I am good with this just as long as they don't do a "surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double-backwards-somersault through a hoop whilst whistling the 'Star Spangled Banner'"

--
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
1. Re:So long and thanks for all the fish. by Oswald+McWeany · 2018-01-31 07:18 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  I am good with this just as long as they don't do a "surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double-backwards-somersault through a hoop whilst whistling the 'Star Spangled Banner'"
  Surely they wouldn't be whistling the "Star Spangled Banner" they would be singing "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau", the national anthem of Wales.
  
  --
  "That's the way to do it" - Punch
2. Re:So long and thanks for all the fish. by Oswald+McWeany · 2018-01-31 07:19 · Score: 1
  
  FYI... yes I know an Orca is a dolphin not a whale (before the Linneaus Nazis arrive)
  
  --
  "That's the way to do it" - Punch
3. Re:So long and thanks for all the fish. by CrimsonAvenger · 2018-01-31 07:52 · Score: 1
  
  FYI... yes I know an Orca is a dolphin not a whale
  It would never have occurred to me that you didn't know an orca is a dolphin.
  Nonetheless, that joke was really terrible...
  On the plus side, I now know that there is a Welsh national anthem....
  
  --
  
  "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
4. Re:So long and thanks for all the fish. by Oswald+McWeany · 2018-01-31 08:49 · Score: 2
  
  FYI... yes I know an Orca is a dolphin not a whale
  It would never have occurred to me that you didn't know an orca is a dolphin.
  Nonetheless, that joke was really terrible...
  On the plus side, I now know that there is a Welsh national anthem....
  Granted the joke was terrible.
  / I'm a father, I'm allowed to make bad jokes
  Technically the Welsh national anthem is God Save the Queen (same as all countries within the United Kingdom) but the Welsh and the Scottish have their own pseudo-national anthems too. Only the English don't have their own national anthem within the countries of the UK.
  
  --
  "That's the way to do it" - Punch
5. Re:So long and thanks for all the fish. by Applehu+Akbar · 2018-01-31 09:02 · Score: 1
  
  ...before the Linneaus Nazis arrive)
  Taxosaurus allemanicus dexter...
6. Re:So long and thanks for all the fish. by Aighearach · 2018-01-31 11:26 · Score: 1
  
  FYI... yes I know an Orca is a dolphin not a whale
  It would never have occurred to me that you didn't know an orca is a dolphin.
  Nonetheless, that joke was really terrible...
  On the plus side, I now know that there is a Welsh national anthem....
  I always sing Bonnie Charlie as the Welsh anthem.
7. Re:So long and thanks for all the fish. by Scarletdown · 2018-01-31 13:15 · Score: 1
  
  Well, belgium...
  
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  This space unintentionally left blank.
8. Re:So long and thanks for all the fish. by quenda · 2018-01-31 16:59 · Score: 1
  
  On the plus side, I now know that there is a Welsh national anthem....
  It's Not Unusual ...
Great tits! by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-31 06:46 · Score: 2, Informative

The tits know what really matters in the society of today: they mimic our smartphones.
1. Re:Great tits! by dryeo · 2018-01-31 08:52 · Score: 1
  
  The tits know what really matters in the society of today: they mimic our smartphones.
  For whoever modded this down, a Tit is a type of small song bird (tit originally meant small rather then being a synonym for teat) and I wouldn't be surprised if they did mimic smartphones.
  I have one Stellars Jay living here that mimics a hawk and Ravens used to be known for killing loggers by imitating the whistles that the high lead loggers used to use to communicate.
  
  --
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
2. Re:Great tits! by Applehu+Akbar · 2018-01-31 09:08 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  The tits know what really matters in the society of today: they mimic our smartphones.
  I went to Google Image for these, and all I got was this bunch of birds.
3. Re:Great tits! by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-31 22:06 · Score: 1
  
  It's far more shocking when they imitate the reverse-gear beeps of a truck. I've rarely been so confused in my life, looking for a truck in/behind the bushes, just to realize it's a tiny bird!
"Amy?" by beckett · 2018-01-31 06:58 · Score: 1

Perhaps the researchers would prefer to interpret the communication attempt in captivity as "Amy" rather than "Kill Me", just so they can sleep at night.
1. Re:"Amy?" by Oswald+McWeany · 2018-01-31 07:26 · Score: 1
  
  Perhaps the researchers would prefer to interpret the communication attempt in captivity as "Amy" rather than "Kill Me", just so they can sleep at night.
  I don't know who Amy is, but she sounds hot if even Orcas are asking for her by name.
  
  --
  "That's the way to do it" - Punch
2. Re: "Amy?" by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-31 07:32 · Score: 1
  
  Hot? More likely she's a whale.
3. Re:"Amy?" by dgatwood · 2018-01-31 09:11 · Score: 2
  
  Or at least swallow the watch that Kif gave her.
  
  --
  Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Um, those are *killer* whales by iMadeGhostzilla · 2018-01-31 07:06 · Score: 2

Of course they'll do whatever they can do put their prey at ease. ;-)
1. Re:Um, those are *killer* whales by Ungrounded+Lightning · 2018-01-31 09:17 · Score: 1
  
  Of course they'll do whatever they can do put their prey at ease. ;-)
  Or bait them to their doom. (Of course the skill is handy for having fun with the handlrs, too.)
  Walruses do this, too. And they regularly eat people if they can get hold of them one-on-one, (to the point that the walrus is the symbol of death for some Inuits).
  (I hear that, a couple decades back, there was one in New York City's Central Park Zoo that started talking like a drunk, with lines like "Hiya, Buddy" in a very slurred form. Apparently a drunk had been hanging out near the walrus display after-hours and talking to it, and it had started mimicing the commoner phrases. No evidence that it had lured the drunk in for a late snack, though.)
  
  --
  Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Dolphinese by gamelaner · 2018-01-31 07:09 · Score: 2

"It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English, up to fifty words used in correct context, no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese." - Carl Sagan
1. Re:Dolphinese by Oswald+McWeany · 2018-01-31 07:22 · Score: 2
  
  "It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English, up to fifty words used in correct context, no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese." - Carl Sagan
  Whereas a dolphin may have received fish from humans to train them to learn English. No human has ever received a large lump sum bonus from a dolphin for a dolphin teaching him dolphinese.
  
  --
  "That's the way to do it" - Punch
2. Re:Dolphinese by Rick+Schumann · 2018-01-31 07:30 · Score: 1
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
  
  Their brains are simultaneously similar and very different from our own. In addition to this, their world, and thus their worldview, is very, very different from ours.
3. Re:Dolphinese by BlueStrat · 2018-01-31 08:04 · Score: 1
  
  No human has ever received a large lump sum bonus from a dolphin for a dolphin teaching him dolphinese.
  Because dolphins have a saying; "Never try to teach a human to speak Dolphin. It only wastes your time and annoys the human."
  Strat
  
  --
  Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
4. Re:Dolphinese by Oswald+McWeany · 2018-01-31 08:50 · Score: 1
  
  No human has ever received a large lump sum bonus from a dolphin for a dolphin teaching him dolphinese.
  Because dolphins have a saying; "Never try to teach a human to speak Dolphin. It only wastes your time and annoys the human."
  Strat
  Dolphins are bastards!
  
  --
  "That's the way to do it" - Punch
Blowing a raspberry? by m2shariy · 2018-01-31 07:16 · Score: 1

Good grief!
Re:including a sound similar to blowing a raspberr by Oswald+McWeany · 2018-01-31 07:21 · Score: 1

"Fart" is the word you're looking for.
I was going to say, I have a Raspberry Pi Zero, and it doesn't have an apparatus to blow.

--
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
...polly by kiviQr · 2018-01-31 07:22 · Score: 1

Polly want a cracker?
1. Re:...polly by Walter+White · 2018-01-31 12:52 · Score: 1
  
  I think Mynahs are easier to teach to speak than parrots. I worked at a pet shop that had a Mynah that could talk. It could also imitate a squeaking hamster wheel with unerring fidelity.
"Presentient" by Rick+Schumann · 2018-01-31 07:27 · Score: 1

..is the word that comes to mind. Or perhaps they're already sentient, but in ways we don't quite understand yet. Who knows?
1. Re:"Presentient" by Jason+Levine · 2018-01-31 07:38 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Koko the gorilla learned quite a bit of sign language and is able to communicate quite well. If I recall correctly, she has the mental capacity of a young human (probably around 6 years old). So she'll understand simple, real-world concepts and has a sense of self, but you wouldn't expect her to be able to, say, calculate complex mathematical equations. I have a feeling that a lot of higher intelligence animals (whales, dolphins, octopii, chimps, etc) have this kind of sentience, but we just don't have a decent method of recognizing it since they're not talking a human language to us the way a human child would.
  
  --
  My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
2. Re:"Presentient" by Rick+Schumann · 2018-01-31 07:42 · Score: 1
  
  You are 100% correct, and you get a Gold Star for the day for pointing that out. :-)
3. Re:"Presentient" by Rick+Schumann · 2018-01-31 07:44 · Score: 1
  
  Right. Like I said elsewhere on this subject: brains both very similar and very different at the same time, and a totally different worldview being a cetacean, since their world is so different from ours (being land-dwellers).
4. Re:"Presentient" by mark-t · 2018-01-31 08:22 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Koko the gorilla understood a spoken vocabulary of about 2000 words, being able to express a little over half of them in sign. While this certainly sounds impressive, and in truth is impressive for any non-human, a normal 6-year old will typically be able to express 2500 words or more, and has a total receptive vocabulary of usually no fewer than 20,000 words.
  In terms of vocabulary, Koko was more roughly the equivalent of a 3 or 4 year old human child, not a 6-year old one.
  
  --
  File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
5. Re:"Presentient" by MangoCats · 2018-01-31 09:19 · Score: 1
  
  And they may be saying the exact same thing about us, but in ways we're not likely to understand for a long long time.
6. Re:"Presentient" by mcswell · 2018-01-31 15:29 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Also, a 6 year old kid has a grammar (in English, that includes both morphology--a relatively small amount, as languages go--and recursive syntax), and knows how to use it in both speaking and listening. Koko never had a grammar, and in that respect was no more than a two year old. Also, most six year olds in literate countries are well on their way to learning to read and write, and do arithmetic.
7. Re:"Presentient" by pots · 2018-01-31 18:10 · Score: 2
  
  The parent said that she had a mental capacity of six year old human. Not that she had the same vocabulary as a six year old human.
  
  Setting aside the fact that this is a stupid way of measuring things, one of the characteristics of human brains is our extremely large language processing centers. This is kinda our stand-out feature, mentally. We like to make much ado about "self-awareness" and our large neo-cortexes, and they are big, but dolphins are comparable. It's vocabulary that we do better than any other animal.
  
  So saying, "Haw haw, that gorilla is dumb because she's not as good as us at the one thing we are best at." is a pretty self-serving measurement. It's not surprising - we tend to evaluate other humans based on how good they are with language, we're an extremely language-focused species, but there are other ways to evaluate mental capacity. Chimpanzees seem to have better visual memory than we do, there are lots of species which have better noses than we do (this is another function of the brain), etc.
8. Re:"Presentient" by mark-t · 2018-02-01 02:36 · Score: 2
  
  but every other thing humans can do, some other animal can do
  No animal has ever been successfully taught to read (specifically, to comprehend what is written), which neither requires the capability of speech, nor any of the predictive capability you suggest may be our only mental advantage.
  
  --
  File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
9. Re:"Presentient" by dinfinity · 2018-02-01 04:28 · Score: 2
  
  Koko the gorilla learned quite a bit of sign language and is able to communicate quite well.
  This is not a fact and is actually highly disputed. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
  People think that anybody who can use ASL could simply have a conversation with Koko. This is false. Koko's conversations are with her handler and subject to significant interpretation.
Day of the Orca? by Macdude · 2018-01-31 07:39 · Score: 1

Is this real, or the plot to the new movie Day of the Orca?

--
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
1. Re:Day of the Orca? by slacktide · 2018-01-31 09:02 · Score: 1
  
  The movie was "ORCA: The Killer Whale". It came out about 6 months after Jaws, and it was awful. Who knew that whales could commit arson?
  
  Orca - the killer whale, is one of the most intelligent creatures in the universe. Incredibly, he is the only animal other than man who kills for revenge. He has one mate, and if she is harmed by man, he will hunt down that person with a relentless, terrible vengeance - across seas, across time, across all obstacles
Re:including a sound similar to blowing a raspberr by DontBeAMoran · 2018-01-31 07:50 · Score: 1

Blowing a raspberry: when you have to install a small fan to blow air on top of your overheating Raspberry Pi CPU.

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What we sound like to orcas by Headw1nd · 2018-01-31 10:00 · Score: 2

So listening to some of the raw data, it seems like the orca frequently uses fart sounds to try and imitate human speech. I can only imagine that this means we sound like fart noises to them.
1. Re: What we sound like to orcas by Atomic+Fro · 2018-01-31 10:27 · Score: 1
  
  I believe you are correct, though I believe they think we all sound like motor boats
  
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Re:Clams... by Scarletdown · 2018-01-31 14:19 · Score: 1

Grog!!!

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Arrogance and hubris. by CyberRacer · 2018-01-31 18:35 · Score: 1

If we (humans) are so much smarter than they are, why is it we keep trying to force them to learn our languages rather than us learning theirs? Just sayin'....
The girl who talked to dolphin did it first by apetrelli · 2018-01-31 21:13 · Score: 1

Actually someone did it first:
https://youtu.be/0xUvhUK8Dv8?t...
In fact it inspired Ecco the Dolphin game in some way.
Re:Checks map... Wales... by Cederic · 2018-02-01 03:32 · Score: 2

That's not a nation, that's a district of the UK that has stupid rules about road signs.
Re:Checks map... Wales... by Oswald+McWeany · 2018-02-02 01:34 · Score: 2

That's not a nation, that's a district of the UK that has stupid rules about road signs.
It's a country within the United Kingdom. UK is made up of three countries England, Scotland and Wales and numerous other territories.

--
"That's the way to do it" - Punch