Gerrard Kaonga
Animals can do amazing things, but people have unlocked a new fear after hearing a whale attempt to mimic human speech.
Most humans accept that we can’t speak to animals the same way that we speak to one another.
But there are a few animals, like parrots, that can mimic our speech rather well, even learning a few phrases and sentences.
So, you can only imagine the fear and shock that set in when people heard a beluga whale seemingly imitating human speech, underwater no less.
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The video, from way back in 2012, has started to do the rounds on social media again, with people admitting they are more terrified than amused.
The news reporters commenting on the brief clip claimed that the whale looks cute and friendly. However, the consensus online is anything but.
Watch it here:
Writing on YouTube, one person commented: “pulls up the bloody terrifying beluga whale picture basically saying ‘I will consume your soul’.
“The female reporter: ‘He looks kinda friendly’.”
Another added: “The thumbnail literally made my SOUL jump out of its body for a second.”
A third wrote: “I laughed so hard when she said 'he looks kinda friendly' right as that terrifying picture came up.”
One person attempted to explain the odd phenomenon, writing: “It makes sense if you think about how the beluga is only mimicking what he can hear.
“The only times human speech would be audible to him is likely when someone is in his enclosure, underwater and with scuba equipment in their mouths. If you've ever gone swimming and tried to talk, it sounds exactly like that.”
If you thought this was just a random occurrence, I’m afraid you would be mistaken...
Earlier this year, a recording from 2018 of an orca imitating human speech also did the rounds.
The killer whale recording was part of a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, which saw experts from Germany, Spain, the UK, and Chile documenting how they discovered orcas could mimic human language.
Explaining the research behind this wild discovery, professor in evolutionary origins of mind at the University of St Andrews and co-author of the study Josep Call spoke to CBSN.
He said: “It tells us that they are flexible vocal learners and their flexibility is not only in their vocal domain but also in their motor domain.
“They can also copy body movements, we knew this from before, but now we know that they can also copy sounds and sounds that are not in their natural repertoire."