RT Journal Article
T1 Imitation of novel conspecific and human speech sounds in the killer whale (Orcinus Orca)
A1 Abramson, José Z.
A1 Hernández Lloreda, María Victoria
A1 García, Lino
A1 Colmenares Gil, Fernando
A1 Aboitiz, Francisco
A1 Call, Josep
AB Vocal imitation is a hallmark of human spoken language, which, along with other advanced cognitive skills, has fuelled the evolution of human culture. Comparative evidence has revealed that although the ability to copy sounds from conspecifics is mostly uniquely human among primates, a few distantly related taxa of birds and mammals have also independently evolved this capacity. Remarkably, field observations of killer whales have documented the existence of group-differentiated vocal dialects that are often referred to as traditions or cultures and are hypothesized to be acquired non-genetically. Here we use ado-as-I-do paradigm to study the abilities of a killer whale to imitate novel sounds uttered by conspecific (vocal imitative learning) and human models (vocal mimicry). We found that the subject made recognizable copies of all familiar and novel conspecific and human sounds tested and did so relatively quickly (most during the first 10 trials and three in the first attempt). Our results lend support to the hypothesis that the vocal variants observed in natural populations of this species can be socially learned by imitation. The capacity for vocal imitation shown in this study may scaffold the natural vocal traditions of killer whales in the wild.
SN 0962-8452
SN 1471-2954
YR 2018
FD 2018
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/95289
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/95289
LA eng
NO Abramson, José Z., et al. «Imitation of Novel Conspecific and Human Speech Sounds in the Killer Whale ( Orcinus Orca )». Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 285, n.o 1871, enero de 2018, p. 20172171. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.2171.
DS Docta Complutense
RD 10 abr 2025