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'Hello!' Says the Human. 'Hello!' Pipes the Orca Right Back. (theguardian.com)
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.
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.
The tits know what really matters in the society of today: they mimic our smartphones.
Of course they'll do whatever they can do put their prey at ease. ;-)
"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
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.
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'
Or at least swallow the watch that Kif gave her.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
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.
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.
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.
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'
That's not a nation, that's a district of the UK that has stupid rules about road signs.
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.
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