In 2018, a study made headlines when it found that a captive orca, or killer whale, was able to imitate human speech. The whale, called Wikie, lived at the Marineland Aquarium in Antibes, France. Wikie was trained to produce the words "Ah ah," "hello," "Amy," and "one two three." (Wikie could also make a sound like a creaky door and imitate the call of an elephant.)
It really shouldn’t be surprising that whales have a knack for imitating speech. They’re very auditory animals, explains Deborah Giles, a killer whale scientist with the SeaDoc Society, an organization that conducts and sponsors scientific research in the Salish Sea.
“Killer whales make their living by being able to communicate over vast distances in order to know what the surrounding environment is like, where to find each other, and where to find food,” she says.
Communicating is just a part of who they are. Giles tells the story of Luna, a young Southern Resident killer whale who was separated from his pod and trapped in the Nootka Sound off the west coast of Vancouver Island. Isolated from others of his species, with whom he would have communicated, Luna began mimicking the sound of boats and other sea life in the area, apparently in an attempt to communicate.
