Killer Whales Say Hello, Goodbye And Laugh: Listen

How does a killer whale say “hello”? Just as we humans do, it turns out. Scientists have long known that orca — commonly known as whales — are social and cognitively developed mammals that live in pods and spend about half their time swimming together and learning from one another. But some new research that includes audio recordings of whales saying “hello,” “bye-bye” and other sounds suggests they can learn from other species as well, including humans.

Parrots are the superstars of mimicking human language, but the researchers tested their theory that other species may have similarly evolved after field observations of killer whales documented elaborate vocal dialects of bleating pulses. The new findings suggest that imitation plays a big role in in the development of whale-speak.

The researchers tested their theory with a 14-year-old killer whale named Wikie and her 3-year-old calf, Moana. Wikie already knew the command “copy this” and Moana was taught it. The researchers used fish as a reward when human sounds were introduced, and it sometimes took up to 17 tries for them to get it right. But when they did, the mimicked the human sounds with amazing clarity.

The research on killer whales’ vocalization abilities was published Wednesday in the journal The Proceedings of the Royal Society B by comparative psychologist José Zamorano Abramson and colleagues from the Complutense University of Madrid. The sounds were recorded at Wikie’s home at Marineland Aquarium in Antibes, France.

In addition to “hello” and “bye-bye,” the scientists also introduced the sounds “ah ah” (laughter), “Amy” and attempted to teach them to count. They were best with “hello” and “Amy,” but struggled more with “bye-bye” and “one-two-three.” They also made sounds that we humans call “raspberries.”

It’s not as easy for a killer whale to vocalize as it is, say, for parrots, which pass air through their throats. The pass sounds through their blowholes.

More of the whales’ vocalizations can be found here. Click on the audio files tab.

(Photo by Sea World Australia via Getty Images)