Researchers at the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, in San Diego have discovered that killer whales raised in captivity are capable of learning how to speak with bottlenose dolphins.
Marine biologists studied three different orcas living in three separate water park enclosures and determined that the whales learned to modify their vocalizations to sound more like their dolphin buddies.
It's the first time interspecies vocal learning has been observed in toothed whales, according to Discovery News.
Killer whales usually communicate by using a strange repertoire of loud bursts and tones. To humans, orca talk can sound more like screaming. Dolphins meanwhile speak by using whistles and clicks to communicate, as seen on the hit TV show Flipper.
"There's been an idea for a long time that killer whales learn their dialect, but it isn't enough to say they all have different dialects so therefore they learn," Dr. Ann Bowles, a senior research scientist at the institute, said in a press release. "There needs to be some experimental proof so you can say how well they learn and what context promotes learning."
Bowles, along with University of San Diego graduate student Whitney Musser, led the study into orcas' adaptive vocals.
Their study was published this week in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.
"It's important to understand how they acquire [their vocalization patterns], and lifelong, to what degree they can change it, because there are a number of different populations on the decline right now," Bowles added. "And where killer whales go, we can expect other small whale species to go -- it's a broader question."
Researchers believe that if killer whales are capable of learning to adopt the language of dolphins, it might have implications for how wild populations behave. This opens the possibility that killer whales might communicate and cooperate with other species, according to the release.
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