Leading Harvard University parrot cognition expert Dr. Irene Pepperberg called the study “exciting,” but also pointed out a drawback. She proposed that a more rigorous test would be to determine whether people could correctly categorize the orca’s sounds without having access to the original models for comparison.
Other Animals That Imitate Human Speech
Although parrots are famous for their ability to speak, other animals have also shown similar talents, such as elephants, dolphins, beluga whales, and orangutans.
These sounds are produced by different mechanisms in each species. For instance, Koshik, an elephant, put his trunk inside his lips to speak Korean phrases like “hello,” “no,” and “sit down,” while Noc, a beluga whale, used his nasal cavities to simulate human speech. These creatures’ capacity to mimic speech still astounds researchers, even though they lack human voice cords.
