Rocky, The Orangutan That ‘Talks’ Like A Human
Rocky, an eight-year-old orangutan stunned scientists after learning how to ‘talk’ like a human being.
The primate as said in a report by Mirror, shocked scientists as it copied words and reproduced them in a “conversational context.”
The researchers then have asked Rocky to play a game wherein he mimicked the tone and the pitch he heard from human vowel sounds.
As the said activity ended, the researchers then compared the recorded sounds produced by Rocky to the large database of recording of wild and captive orangutans, but, it appeared that Rocky made something different.
Scientists then concluded that Rocky was able to learn new sounds, as well as controlling the action of his voice just like how humans do a converse.
“It’s not clear how spoken language evolved from the communication systems of the ancestral great apes,” said Dr. Adriano Lameria from the University of Durham.
“Instead of learning new sounds, it has been presumed that sounds made by great apes are driven by arousal over which they have no control,” Lameria said.
But, Dr. Lameria added that orangutans have the potential capability to “control the action of their voice” basing on the research done.
Scientists added that the Rocky has been showing an indication that the voice control shown by humans have been based on an evolutionary ancestor. They added that the said observation opens the possibility to learn more about vocal capacities of early “hominids”.
The eight-year-old Rocky is being studied at the Indianapolis Zoo in the US.
See the video of Rocky mimicking his strainer.
