Anna Caplan
A recently published study goes into the details about why animals can’t talk like humans. A group of scientists made their point by getting a killer whale to repeat human voices, such as names like “Amy.”
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The research, published in “Proceedings of the Royal Society B,” focused on getting a 14-year-old orca named Wikie to “copy sounds.” And while whales can imitate the sounds of their brethren, it was not known if they could repeat human voices.
Apparently, Wikie had little trouble saying the words, especially when the words and sounds were “easy to produce.” According to the study, “she picked up several of them on the first try.”
The study even released some of the audio files of Wikie trying to replicate some of the words she hears.
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