The voice may seem unsettling to some, yet some of the lines are quite familiar. More intriguingly, scientists hypothesize that this capacity may account for the development of various languages among orca pods.
The crucial issue still remains, though: Can the orca comprehend her? Wikie, a killer whale who lives at the Marineland Aquarium in Antibes,
France, is the subject of the investigation. Wikie’s ability to mimic her trainer’s words with little to no practice—sometimes even on her first try—is what sets her apart.
The study’s co-author, Josep Call, a professor at the University of St. Andrews, said, “We wanted to test how adaptable a killer whale is when copying sounds.”
“To really test this, we gave them words like ‘hello,’ which an orca would never naturally say, which are entirely outside of their natural repertoire.”
