Related Stories Researchers in the US have been shocked to discover a beluga whale whose vocalisations were remarkably close to human speech. While dolphins have been taught to mimic(имитировать) the pattern(шаблон) and durations(продолжительность) of sounds in human speech, no animal has spontaneously tried such mimicry. But researchers heard a nine-year-old whale named NOC make sounds octaves below(ниже) normal, in clipped bursts. The researchers outline(обрисовывать) in Current Biology just how NOC did it. The first mystery, though, was figuring out where the sound was coming from. When a diver(ныряльщик) at the National Marine Mammal Foundation in California surfaced(всплыл)saying, "Who told me to get out?" the researchers there knew they had another example on their hands. The whales are known as "canaries of the sea" for their high-pitched(высокое) chirps(чириканье), but while a number of anecdotal ( содержащий истории) reports have described whales making human-like speech, none had ever been recorded. Once they identified(обозначать) NOC as the culprit(преступник), they caught it on tape. They found that vocal bursts averaged( в среднем) about three per second, with pauses reminiscent(напоминающий) of human speech. Analysis of the recordings showed that the frequencies(частота) within them were spread out into "harmonics" in a way very unlike whales' normal vocalisations and more like those of humans. They then rewarded(вознаграждать) NOC for the speech-like sounds to teach him to make them on command and fitted him with(в соответствии с ) a pressure transducer (датчик давления) within his nasal cavity, where sounds are produced, to monitor just what was going on. They found that he was able to rapidly(быстро) change the pressure within his nasal cavity to produce the sounds. To amplify(усилить)the comparatively(сравнительно) low-frequency(низкочастотный) parts of the vocalisations, he over-inflated(перенадутый) what is known at the vestibular sac(мешок???) in his blowhole(дыхало кита) - which normally acts to stop water entering the lungs. In short, the mimicry was no easy task for NOC. "Our observations(наблюдения) suggest that the whale had to modify its vocal mechanics in order to make the speech-like sounds," said Sam Ridgway, president of the National Marine Mammal Foundation and lead author on the paper. "The sounds we heard were clearly an example of vocal learning by the white whale." Have you ever heard about these animals? Why people name these whales as "canaries of the sea"? Do you want to have photo with it? What do you think about white whales’ abilities? Do you want to see the beluga whale?
It is a wonderful animal!!! It is a cognitive article for me because I heard about these whales earlier but I didn’t know that they are so talented!! I want to see these animals again . (I know that it is an extra information but they are so nice!!!!!!!)
It is a fact that animals are very clever. Beluga whale is a beautiful ans unusual animal!!! This information is very interesting. I knew that dolphins vocalize. But i don't hear about whales!!! It is cool!!!!
I've seen a whale several years ago. It was so nice.