Orcas can imitate calls from other whales and even human speech—suggesting they can transmit cultural practices, such as unique dialects.
虎鲸能模仿其他鲸鱼甚至人类的声音——这暗示了他们可以传播文化习俗，如独特的方言。
撰文\播音：克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔（Christopher Intagliata）
翻译：张艺箫
校对：郭晓
Killer whales, also called orcas, are like dolphins and belugas—they all have a wide vocal repertoire. <<orca sounds>> But orcas also have unique dialects among different pods. Which suggests the animals can learn new and unique sounds by imitating mom, or another whale.
虎鲸，也被称为逆戟鲸，它们像海豚和白鲸一样，拥有广阔的音域。<<虎鲸的声音>>但不同群落的虎鲸有着不同的方言。这暗示虎鲸这种动物可以通过模仿自己的妈妈或其他鲸鱼来学习新的独特的声音
Researchers tested that premise by asking a killer whale named Wikie to imitate novel sounds from another killer whale, like this [Wolf sound] or this [creaking door sound].
为了验证这个假设，研究人员让一个叫Wikie的虎鲸模仿其他虎鲸的新声音，比如这个【狼叫】和【吱吱作响的门声】。
And then: Wikie's trainers asked her to imitate them speaking English. Here's how she did: ["Amy, hello"]
然后：Wikie的训练者们让她模仿他们说英语。Wikie是这样模仿的：["Amy, hello"]
Pretty impressive, especially because she's using her nasal passages to imitate sounds we make with our vocal cords.
很是令人印象深刻，尤其是因为她用她的鼻腔来模仿我们用声带发出的声音。
And a technical acoustic analysis of the original and imitated sounds showed that Wikie was doing a reliable job of mimicry, suggesting orcas do indeed possess the ability of vocal imitation. The study is in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. [Jose Z. Abramson et al., Imitation of novel conspecific and human speech sounds in the killer whale (Orcinus orca)]
一项对原始和模仿的声音的专业声学分析结果表明，Wikie的模仿非常可靠，暗示虎鲸确实有模仿声音的能力。 这项研究发表在《英国皇家学会学报：B辑》上。
So how long before Wikie's fluent in English? Well: "This is not our goal." Study author José Zamorano-Abramson, a comparative psychologist. "We are focusing on one aspect of vocal language, which is the capacity for vocal imitation." Because the ability to imitate implies a way to transmit culture… and in doing so preserve each orca pod's unique repertoire. ["bye bye"]
那么让Wikie精通英语需要多久？“这不是我们的目标。”论文作者José Zamorano-Abramson说道，他是一名比较心理学家。 “我们专注于声音语言的一个方面，这就是模仿声音的能力。” 因为模仿的能力暗示着传播文化的方式......并且这样做保留了每个虎鲸群落的独特“方言”。
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