Then she was instructed to copy human words including the name “Amy,” “hello,” “1,2,3,” "bye-bye" and the sound of a raspberry. Wikie was first directed to copy the sounds of other orcas from family groups with different dialects she had never heard before. This particular orca was a good candidate for the project because her trainer had already taught her a gesture that the creature knew meant she should copy her trainer's movements, reports Agence-France Presse. So the scientists enlisted the help of a female whale named Wikie at Marineland Aquarium in Antibes, France. And they have been known to be copycats: Orcas copy the movements of other killer whales and some evidence suggests they can also mimic sea lions and bottle-nosed dolphins. As Nicola Davis reports for The Guardian, researchers believed their adept imitation skills could explain how orca pods develop different dialects overtime. Researchers were interested to see if orca whales could mimic unfamiliar sounds. Now, as the BBC reports, researchers have found that one species, orca whales, can also learn to mimic human words-a discovery that may explain how their own language changes with time. Whales produce beautiful, eerie and intricate songs that build and evolve overtime.
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