Orca whales can talk like humans?

Orca [ Orcinus orca ] which is also called killer whale / killer whale is a smart marine mammal.

Orca vocalizations are no less amazing. A group of orcas have a different "language" than other groups. They have a dialect which is also a group marker.

In 2018, researchers from Germany, England, Spain and Chile observed two orcas, Wikie and Moana, in Marineland, Antibes, France. It turned out that Wikie managed to reproduce all the sounds, most of them in under 10 tries. Amazingly, the words hello and one two three can be repeated at the first opportunity.

Although the sound produced is not as clear as a parrot that can imitate human voices, by comparing the spectrogram of real human voices and orca voices, there is no doubt that Wikie managed to imitate the sound even though it was not perfect.

Orca [ Orcinus orca ] which is also called killer whale / killer whale is in a row of smart marine mammals. They are complex social creatures. Orcas are equipped with the ability to forage in groups, choose certain foods, to hunting techniques.

A group of orcas in Antarctica, for example, eat penguins while others choose a different type which is sometimes bigger than the orca itself. It's like humans in an area whose staple food is rice while others are corn. Uniquely, this ability is taught from generation to generation in one group as it is known to humans as culture.

The size of the brain is also impressive. Adult orca brain weight can reach 6 kg. Compare that with the human brain which has an average weight of 1.4 kg, according to Varsity magazine , published by the University of Cambridge. The greater the brain volume, the greater the possibility of connections between neurons that support the brain's speed of reasoning.

Orca vocalizations are no less amazing. A group of orcas have a different "language" than other groups. They have a dialect which is also a group marker.

Quoting us.whales.org , the smallest group of orcas is called a pod, which is formed based on maternal kinship [ matrialkart ]. One pod consists of mothers, daughters, sisters, cousins ​​and their children. The boy will be protected by his mother for life.

A pod of orcas can often be seen swimming together. Above the pods are clans, consisting of several pods that have dialect compatibility. Above the clan there is a community indicated by the similarity of association patterns rather than kinship.

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Human voice _

In 2018, researchers from Germany, England, Spain and Chile observed two orcas, Wikie and Moana, in Marineland, Antibes, France. They discovered that orcas were able to mimic human voices.

Quoting The Guardian , the researchers conducted 30 experiments on Wikie. They make sounds orcas have never heard before, such as the sound of a door squeaking. Wikie was also introduced to the sounds that humans make, as well as other orcas.

It turned out that Wikie managed to reproduce all the sounds, most of them in under 10 tries. Amazingly, the words hello and one two three can be repeated at the first opportunity.

Researchers suspect that orcas may have learned to mimic each other's vocal patterns in the wild. The results of this observation are also in line with previous research in the field, which found that a group of orcas have dialects.

Although the sound produced is not as clear as a parrot that can imitate human voices, by comparing the spectrogram of real human voices and orca voices, there is no doubt that Wikie managed to imitate the sound even though it was not perfect. Previously, research has found that these intelligent mammals can imitate sea lions and bottlenose dolphins.

Mammals generally use the throat [ larynx ] to produce sounds like humans. While orcas use the respiratory / nasal passages. This makes the imitation sounds that orcas make sound unique.

Joseph Call, a researcher from the University of St Andrews, said the ability to imitate sounds like that is rare in mammals. "Humans are obviously good at this... Interestingly, the mammals that can do very well are the marine mammals," he is quoted as saying by the BBC .

Dr. Jose Abramson, from Complutense University, Madrid, Spain, who was also involved in the research, said that one day humans might be able to carry out simple conversations with Wikie. The experiment is reported in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B which can be read online.

Although orcas like cold areas, their range of marine mammals is quite wide. It is not surprising that this animal with a distinctive black and white color has reportedly appeared several times in Indonesian waters. Orcas actually belong to the dolphin family, protected under Ministerial Regulation Number P.106/Menlhk/Setjen/Kum.1/12/2018.

Even for people on the coast of Sulawesi, orcas are not foreign animals. In Gorontalo, fishermen call orcas paupausu to distinguish them from pilot whales, which are called paupau.

In Indonesia, orcas appeared in Anambas waters, Riau Archipelago in April 2020. Then on the coast of Wureh Village Beach, East Flores and in Biak Numfor waters, Papua Province, in June 2020. Then in Inobonto waters, North Sulawesi.

The Ministry of Environment and Forestry also recorded the appearance of orcas in Indonesian waters in previous years. In April 2021, an orca washed up dead on the beach in Banyuwangi. The poor orca was previously known to have drowned swimming in the Bali Strait.