新的研究发现，逆戟鲸竟然会模仿人类说话，他们用自己的方式：用一种独特的尖声呼叫来说一些诸如“你好”，“再见”或“一，二”的词语。
逆戟鲸是一种非常聪明的海洋哺乳动物。它们能在复杂的社会环境中与同伴交往。他们会组成相互之间联系紧密的小群体，然后集体行动。这些群体通常由5-30条鲸鱼组成，不过偶尔有一些小群体的成员数量可能超过100头鲸。这种嘴里长满牙齿鲸鱼也被称为“虎鲸”(他们实际上属于海豚科)。它们被认为用不同群体之间的方言进行着某种复杂形式的交流。
New research has found that orcas imitate human speech in their own way: using a distinctive screech to say words such as "hello" , "good-bye" or "one, two" . Orcas are a very intelligent marine mammal. They can interact with their peers in a complex social environment. They form small groups that are closely connected to each other, and then act collectively. These groups are usually made up of 5-30 whales, although occasionally there are small groups that may have more than 100 members. These toothed whales are also known as "killer whales" (they are actually part of the dolphin family) . They are thought to engage in some complex form of communication using dialects between different groups.
此前，研究人员发现，这些海洋生物能够模仿其他逆戟鲸的动作和行为。有传闻称，它们也能够模仿宽吻海豚和海狮的声音。但是这些聪明的海洋动物有时候会比我们想象的更加令人印象深刻。
Previously, the researchers found that these marine creatures were able to mimic the movements and behaviour of other orcas. It is rumored that they can also imitate the sounds of bottlenose dolphins and sea lions. But these clever sea creatures can sometimes be more impressive than we think.
以维基为例，它是一头可以发出“你好”，“艾米”，“啊哈”，“一二”，“再见”等人声的虎鲸。圣安德鲁斯大学(University of St. Andrews)和维也纳大学(University of Vienna)的研究人员在法国安提伯(Antibes)的海洋水族馆培训了这头14岁的雌性虎鲸，以便探究逆戟鲸们歌声的长度。这是他的声音：(点击原文链接)
这些研究表明，本质上逆戟鲸能够模仿他们从未听过的声音，也学得很快。在17次试验中，包括属于其他逆戟鲸的所有新奇的声音都被模仿了。事实上，两个人类的话语和所有人造的虎鲸声音都是在第一次尝试模仿的时候就成功的。
圣安德鲁斯大学进化心理学教授，同时也是这项研究的合作者，何塞普·卡尔(Josep Call)说：“你不能选择一个非常复杂的词，因为那样我会觉得你的要求太高了。我们想要选取的词汇非常短，但也很有特色。”
科学家们用一种称为动态时间规整(DTW)的计算机算法将维基模仿的声音与那些原始声音相比较。比较结果也被一些蒙住眼睛的评判者所证实：他们必须听原声和逆戟鲸发出声音的音频样本，然后决定是否听起来相似。研究人员发现，维基成功地复制了所有的声音，尽管有些单词与其它单词相比要花更长的时间来学习。
成功发音的比率也不一样。维基说“你好”的正确率是55%，而说“再见”只有21%的正确率，这表明对于逆戟鲸来说一些声音比其它声音更加难以模仿。
能够模仿人类说话的动物并不多，这不仅需要特定的发声器官，还需要专门的神经通路。相应的例子包括猩猩，海豚，当然还有鹦鹉。
但是所有这些动物都与人有相似的形态，这也是逆戟鲸的行为更加令人印象深刻的原因。尽管拥有与人类完全不同的形态，但在这种情况下它仍然可以产生与其他物种相似的声音，就像我们一样。
然而，《英国皇家学会学报B辑：生物科学》发表的研究结果并没有显示出虎鲸能够辨别它们模仿的声音的含义。无论如何都没有证据表明这一点。
卡尔和他的同事相信，这种通过嗓音模仿其它声音的精妙能力，是野外被观察到的逆戟鲸方言现象的核心。可能会有更多的研究证实这种预感。无论如何，调查结果显示，虎鲸交流的复杂性反映了他们社会结构的复杂性。这两者之间可能存在着因果关系。
In the case of wikipedia, it is a killer whale that can make "hello" , "amy" , "aha" , "one-two, " "good-bye" and so on. Researchers from the University of st. Andrews and the University of Vienna trained the 14-year-old female at the marine aquarium in Antibes, france, to explore the lengths of the songs of orcas.
Here's his voice: these studies show that orcas are essentially able to imitate sounds they have never heard before and are learning quickly. In 17 experiments, all of the novel sounds, including those belonging to other orcas, were simulated. In fact, both human words and all artificial orca sounds were successful the first time we tried to imitate them.
A professor of evolutionary psychology and a co-author of the study, is a professor of evolutionary psychology, "you can't choose a very complicated word, " says Josep Karrh, because then i would think you are asking too much. The words we want to select are very short, but they are also very distinctive,"said the scientists, who compared the sound of wikis with those of primitive sounds in a computer algorithm called a Dynamic time warping.
The results were also confirmed by some blindfolded judges: they had to listen to audio samples of the sounds of the acoustic and orcas, and then decide whether it sounded similar. The researchers found that wikipedia succeeded in reproducing all the sounds, although some words took longer to learn than others. The rate of successful pronunciation is also different. Wikipedia has a 55 per cent chance of saying hello, while a "good-bye" is only 21% accurate, suggesting that some sounds are harder to imitate than others for orcas.
There aren't many animals that can imitate human speech, which requires not only specific vocal organs, but also specialized neural pathways. Examples include orangutans, dolphins, and of course parrots. But all of these animals have a similar shape to humans, which is why the behavior of orcas is even more impressive.
Although it has a completely different form than humans, it can still produce sounds similar to those of other species, just as we do. However, the results of the Royal Society published in the journal biological science do not show that killer whales can tell the meaning of the sounds they imitate. In any case, there is no evidence to support this.
Karrh and his colleagues believe that this delicate ability to imitate other sounds through their voices is at the heart of the observed orca dialect phenomenon in the wild. There may be more research to confirm this hunch, he said. In any case, the findings suggest that the complexity of orca communication reflects the complexity of their social structure. There may be a causal link between the two.