Beluga whale 'makes human-like sounds'

Beluga whale 'makes human-like sounds'

www.bbc.co.uk

Researchers in the US have been shocked to discover a beluga whale whose vocalisations were remarkably close to human speech.
While dolphins have been taught to mimic the pattern and durations of sounds in human speech, no animal has spontaneously tried such mimicry.

But researchers heard a nine-year-old whale named NOC make sounds octaves below normal, in clipped bursts.

The researchers outline in Current Biology just how NOC did it.

They found that vocal bursts averaged about three per second, with pauses reminiscent of human speech. Analysis of the recordings showed that the frequ

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"Our observations suggest that the whale had to modify its vocal mechanics in order to make the speech-like sounds," said Sam Ridgway, president of the National Marine Mammal Foundation and lead author on the paper.

"The sounds we heard were clearly an example of vocal learning by the white whale."

A US Navy-trained beluga whale named NOC can imitate human speech. Wild belugas have long been informally called "sea canaries."

Well that's cool...maybe one day we can teach them English and actually communicate. If birds can be taught words and what they mean then surely whales can.


www.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

After listening to the clip I can clearly make out the human qualities in the vocal range. It stands out because whales never sound like that. It's a pretty interesting mimic.

reply to post by FlySolo


Probably saying............... "Thanks for all the fish".

Or he is the smart one that is finally going to tell us straight up what poor caretakers we have been.

Wow, this is interesting.

If I am not mistaken, this is strikingly familiar with the song "The Star Spangled Banner"

The whale is either mocking us, showing off to us, or singing with us.

someone has a good sense of humor... I'm half and half on this one... but it sounds fake to me.... too funny!

a yo, a yo, a yo, dee lee oh dee dah!

I dunno, maybe it's a message of some kind....

This reminds me of the dog next door... He used to howl like a hound-dog... and still does. Once in a while of late though, I hear him sounding more like a Scooby Doo bark.... def. strange.

The whale is trying to communicate with us in our language. It is the responsibility of the more intelligent being to initiate contact. Funny it took this long for us to realize they can make humanlike sounds. I wonder if they are speaking some ancient language of man, taught to them by some of our ancestors.

reply to post by 3chainz

Interestingly, I was watching Through The Wormhole - a show on the science channel - where a guy came on that had analyzed speech and how the sounds we make translate to language mathematically. What he found in his research was that when he examined animals (like dolphins) many of them showed the same mathematical relationships.

FOUND IT! Here is a description of the scene (scroll near the bottom):
www.huffingtonpost.com -
'Through The Wormhole' Host Morgan Freeman: 'We Can't Be' Alone In The Universe (VIDEO)...

Here is the episode on youtube (fast-forward to 12:23):

reply to post by jonnywhite


Hey that's pretty niffty. I wonder what other animals communicate using syntax.

reply to post by 3chainz


I wonder what it was trying to say? ..."Please, stop killing my family and friends, stop destroying my world?"

Amazing that an animal is trying to communicate with us when we, the "superior beings" [sic], are unable to put out the same effort.

to the Navy and the rest of mankind.

reply to post by soficrow


What makes you think it was trying to say anything? The article calls it mimicry... Kind of like how Parrots can "say words" but don't really know what they are saying...? I see no reason yet, to suspect it was doing anything other than mimic a sound it heard...

I see no reason to suspect that it was trying to communicate an original thought to us about our navy or the way we treat them...So, why turn it into a political rant?

Personally, I think it is very cool that this whale learned to mimic human sounds with out being taught, like they have had to be taught in the past....

( By the way, the fact that they had to be taught to mimic in the past, also suggests to me that you are wrong about this whale trying to "say something"....

Those parrots who ask you for a cracker, aren't actually trying to communicate that they want a cracker... They are just mimicking the sound of the human who repeated that phrase to them over and over and over... Which is why they can also mimmic other sounds....



Or do you think that this guy here, can speak the language of all these other animals as well? If so, I assure, you, all he is doing is mimicking. And I suspect that is what is going on with this whale....


Don't get me wrong, it is very cool that this whale learned to mimic on his own.... But... That's all he is doing... He is not ranting about the way mankind has treated his brothers and sisters.

reply to post by DirtyLiberalHippie

What makes you think it was trying to say anything? The article calls it mimicry...

There was a controlled urgency to his tone. As far as mimicry goes - I grew up on a farm surrounded by animals, have always had animal friends, and currently count 2 dogs, 4 cockatiels and 1 finch as part of my family. I know from experience that animals DO think, feel and try to communicate.

Speculating about an animal's distress and concern about the environment is not "political" - it's logical.

NOC's vocalizations were recorded and studied by a team of biologists from the National Marine Mammal Foundation (NMMF) led by Sam Ridgway. In 1984, Ridgway and others at the NMMF began to hear peculiar sounds coming from the whale and dolphin enclosure.

Why did this take so long to make the news? Even the radio DJ was talking about it during the morning rush. Sadly, we can never ask NOC what? He died in '07

reply to post by 3chainz


Interesting, I have heard cats and dogs make this similar vocal pattern. They always sound like they are sending out a warning.

Great, the Navy is training Beluga whales to speak to the enemy (middle east, iran i suspect) in order to confuse and derail on coming enemy attacks. Our tax dollars at work, in order to bring you

Dolphins rape humans.

A talking whale? Meh... *zzz*

reply to post by soficrow


I wouldn't diss all of mankind. There's at least those people on the ships that try to save whales from Japanese whalers.