You Have to Hear This Beluga Mimicking a Person

At first, they couldn't tell where the sound was coming from. Researchers at the National Marine Mammal Foundation kept hearing what sounded like a muffled conversation, as if two people were talking just around a corner. It was only when a diver climbed out of the enclosure holding a male beluga whale and said, "Who told me to get out?" that they realized the whale himself was making the speech-like noises. It was 1984, and the beluga, called NOC, had been living at the research center for seven years. Belugas are known for being noisy. But they usually stick with a standard whale repertoire of squeals, whistles and clicks. As for NOC, it seemed that after all his years of hearing human speech, both from trainers and researchers above the water and from divers talking on underwater equipment, he had developed a decent impression: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/37173439/beluga.mp3 I like to imagine the ...