Beluga Mimics Human Sounds

Beluga whale

Researchers in the US have recently reported in Current Biology findings from a study showing the apparent mimicry of a Beluga whale mimicking human voice. Although it has been known that cetaceans can mimic sounds, this is the first to show that Beluga’s (Delphinapterus leucas) can spontaneously imitate human speech. Curiosity of researchers were raised when a diver in NOC, Beluga’s tank at the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program facility in San Diego, thought he heard someone calling him. After investigating the calls, it was not a human at all, but NOC vocalising sounds lower in frequency than ‘normal’ beluga calls and resembled the inflections of human speech. Sam Ridgway, lead researcher from the National Marine Mammal Foundation said “Our observations suggest that the whale had to modify its vocal mechanics in order to make the speech-like sounds.”