Say hello to an orca, and it might say hello back..

A remarkable collaboration between an international team of researchers and two orcas residing in a French aquarium has unveiled their astounding aptitude for replicating human sounds, including familiar words such as “hello” and “bye-bye,” as well as various sequences like “ah ah.”

The study focused primarily on an orca named Wikie, who had previously been trained to mimic behaviours. Whenever a trainer performed a specific gesture, Wikie intuitively understood that she was expected to replicate the actions of her fellow orca.

However, it was the introduction of human sounds that truly captivated the researchers. Utterances like “Ah ah,” “hello,” “bye-bye,” “Amy,” “one-two,” and “one-two-three” were entirely novel to Wikie. Nonetheless, she fearlessly embraced the challenge. Remarkably, Wikie effortlessly picked up on “hello” and “one-two-three” on her first attempt, while mastering the others required more time and practice.

See the video here: