Captive whale learns to 'talk' through blowhole in controversial study

A killer whale has been taught to 'speak' human words through her blowhole in a controversial study.

Wikie, a 16-year-old captive Orca living at a French marine theme park, can mimic words such as "hello" and "Amy" and can even count up to three.

The scientist that led the study believes that basic "conversations" with her may one day be possible.

But environmental campaigners have said that keeping the intelligent creatures in captivity is cruel.

One of the scientists studying Wikie's 'speech', Professor Josep Call said: "We can learn more about their cognition and behaviour and we can extract some scientific knowledge from these fascinating creatures.

"So in my mind it's not cruelty."

Wikie's words emerge as parrot-like squawks, shrill whistles or raspberries, but most are clear enough to understand.

Wild Orcas are known to share unique vocal "dialects", learned sounds used for communication that are kept within a population and passed to future generations.

Experts believe they demonstrate a high level of social intelligence.

Killer whales both in the wild and in captivity have also been observed copying dolphin calls and the barks of sea lions.

However, Wikie is believed to be the first member of her species to mimic human speech.

She was taught to copy sounds and words from both another killer whale - her own three-year-old calf, Moana - and by her trainer at Marineland Aquarium in Antibes.

She 'speaks' while partially immersed in water with her blowhole exposed to the air.

Speech recognition software was used to test how well she performed.

Although the researchers did not set out to test Wikie's communication skills, the scientist who led the study believes basic "conversations" with her may one day be possible.

Dr Jose Abramson, from Complutense de Madrid University in Spain, said: "Yes, it's conceivable ... if you have labels, descriptions of what things are. It has been done before with a famous grey parrot and dolphins using American sign language; sentences like 'bring me this object' or 'put this object above or below the other'.

"But you have to be careful about imposing our human concepts on animals. We will gain more if we try to understand the natural way each species communicates in its own environment than if we try to teach a human language."