Male Beluga Whale Mimics Human Speech

[joseephuss]

The whale said, "Dude get out of here, so I can hit on this chick"

http://www.sci-tech-today.com/news/B...d=113006E0UJ2X

Study: Male Beluga Whale Mimics Human Speech
Beluga whales can vocalize in a way remarkably close to human speech, or at least one could, scientists say. An acoustic analysis of whale recordings revealed the human-like sounds were several octaves lower than typical whale calls. Scientists think the whale's close proximity to people allowed it to listen to and mimic human conversation.

It could be the muffled sound of singing in the shower or that sing-songy indecipherable voice from the Muppets' Swedish Chef.

Surprisingly, scientists said the audio they captured was a whale imitating people. In fact, the whale song sounded so eerily human that divers initially thought it was a human voice.

Handlers at the National Marine Mammal Foundation in San Diego heard mumbling in 1984 coming from a tank containing whales and dolphins that sounded like two people chatting far away.

It wasn't until one day, after a diver surfaced from the tank and asked, "Who told me to get out?" did researchers realize the garble came from a captive male Beluga whale. For several years, they recorded its spontaneous sounds while it was underwater and when it surfaced.

An acoustic analysis revealed the human-like sounds were several octaves lower than typical whale calls. The research was published online Monday in Current Biology.