Whale Talk
(Abridged Story)
From a news story by
CNN San Francisco Reporter Don Knapp
4/10/97
Whale Talk
(Abridged Story)
From a news story by
CNN San Francisco Reporter Don Knapp
4/10/97
Not all killer whales sound the same. Can killer whales from one ocean learn to talk with whales from other seas?
Yes! People who study whales have found that whales can learn to talk to each other. They do this by learning to make each other's sounds.
People from one part of our country don't speak the same as people from another part. Just like people, whales' voices have many tones. This gives meaning to the sounds the killer whales make.
Other sea animals can learn the killer whale sounds. Dolphins try to make the same noises which are like whistles. Studies found that dolphins could make 102 types of whistles. One of the dolphin's whistles sounds like a bird squawking.
No one is sure what all of this means. Are the sounds killer whales make really a language?
