Most people can name at least one animal that can mimic human speech. The humble parrot. Its skill at mimicking human sounds is extraordinary, but it doesn’t surprise people anymore. Some may know that crows and ravens have excellent mimicking abilities, too, though they make less of a habit of it. However, few people know that more animals try to mimic human speech than just birds.
A team of researchers has found that orcas can imitate human speech patterns as well. They taught an orca named Wikie to mimic human words like “hello” and “bye-bye,” along with a handful of other simple phrases. After the audio recordings surfaced, some people found them amusing, while others were left disturbed.
