Noc could 'talk' to the manimals: wondrous white whale's story retold

wfgodot

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Pretty sure what Noc was trying to tell us was, in the words of John Lennon,
"I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together."

The whale that learned to talk to the man-imals: Incredible story of 'Noc', who could
imitate a human's voice and used an underwater microphone to make contact with scientists
(Daily Mail)
A white whale which learnt to imitate the voices of humans may have been trying to make contact, scientists believe.

The male named Noc had a distinctly human-like voice, much to the surprise of scientists who previously thought whales typically produce sounds in a manner that is wholly different from humans.

Noc died five years ago after 30 years of living amongst dolphins and other white whales and being in contact with humans at the National Marine Mammal Foundation based in San Diego in California.
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Sam Ridgway, who led the study, said: 'Our observations suggest that the whale had to modify its vocal mechanics in order to make the speech-like sounds.

'Such obvious effort suggests motivation for contact.'
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the rest of the story and a tape of some Noc-Talk at the link above
 
Thanks for this story ....below is link to video



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html

Mr Ridgway said: 'Whale voice prints were similar to human voice and unlike the whale’s usual sounds.

'The sounds we heard were clearly an example of vocal learning by the white whale.'
He said it was all the more remarkable because whales make sounds via their nasal tract, not in the larynx as humans do.
To make those human-like sounds, Noc had to vary the pressure in his nasal tract while making other muscular adjustments and inflating the vestibular sac in his blowhole.

In other words, they say, it wasn’t easy.
The study 'Spontaneous human speech mimicry by a cetacean' are published in the latest issue of Current Biology.
'Our observations of human voice mimicry began in May 1984 when a male white whale about 9 years of age at our facility in San Diego Bay spontaneously began to make such speechlike sounds,' the researchers say.
 

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