Tag Archives: dolphins

Do you speak Dolphin?

If humans are able to replicate noises of other species of animals, then why aren’t other animals able to do the same? Recent studies have discovered that in fact they are. Although the technique of imitating another species language is extremely rare, it has recently been found that Orca Whales are able to do so

“Killer whales, or Orcas, emit three main types of vocalization: clicks, pulse calls, and whistles, with pulse calls being the dominant form of communication.” When a group of whales are together for long amounts of time they tend to begin emitting similar sound to communicate with eachother  , thus forming their own “dialect”. According to studies recorded by a University of San Diego grad student and a SeaWorld research scientist it was found that “Orcas that were socialized with bottlenose dolphins started making similar sounds as the dolphins.”

Right now it is not exactly known how the whales learn to replicated the noises that they hear. However, birds who exhibit the same abilities can be easily studied due to the small size of their brains. Although we can’t exactly compare the brain of a whale and a bird it does give scientists a reference point and a strong basis for comparison.

A scientist conducted study showed that whales who were placed with dolphins made distinctly different sounds as opposed to whales that were surrounded by other whales. It is interesting to know that there are other animals who can replicated sounds just like us. Orca whales have been around for many years and this incredible ability has just been discovered. Who knows how many other animals there are that have this special ability that we have just not discovered yet.


 


 


Sources

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/captive-orcas-learn-communicate-their-dolphin-mates

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/captive-orcas-learn-communicate-their-dolphin-mates