Scientists at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti) in the US claim to have conversed with a humpback whale in Alaska as a proxy for communicating with aliens.
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They found that while most of the whales ignored the recorded calls, one of them – a female named Twain – circled the scientists’ boat, mimicking the noises for about 20 minutes.
Researchers are not entirely sure what the recorded call meant, but suspect it is a kind of “contact call” that whales use to call each other.
“It might have just been us saying hello, and her responding hello, and us saying hello again,” Dr Walker explained.
“We believe this is the first such communicative exchange between humans and humpback whales in the humpback ‘language,’” study lead author Brenda McCowan said in a statement.
I’ll definitely check it out! Edit: Now I know that elephants name each other.
Yes! That’s one of cooler new discoveries in the world of animal communication. It’s such an exciting time for bioacoustics with all the recent advancements in AI, I think there’s going to be quite a few big discoveries in the coming years.
Just as long as we never figure out how to talk to our pets. Ignorance is bliss and I’m more likely to be annoyed if I can meaningfully converse with a Labrador about when to go for walks.