On recordings, ducks can be heard distinctly imitating name calling or door slamming. An extremely rare vocalization capacity in the animal world.
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The parrots are among the few animals capable of learning and reproducing sounds. This faculty has also been observed in some mockingbirds or in hummingbirds. But this specificity remains very rare in the animal kingdom and occurs in exceptional circumstances. By examining old recordings, Australian researchers found that the Duck at barbillons (Biziura lobata), a species of duck native to Australia, also possessed the gift of imitating different sounds including human expressions.
” Complete Idiot “
The researchers notably unearthed the sound of a duck named Ripper (ripper, in French), raised in a nature reserve located 50 kilometers from Canberra. We can thus hear thebird distinctly repeating a phrase similar to ” You bloody fool ” (complete Idiot). According to the researchers, these phrases were most likely spoken repeatedly by the Guardian, but they don’t know at what age Ripper was first exposed to them (he was four years old at the time of the recordings). The bird was also able to reproduce the snap of a door located a few meters from where he lived. Another recording features the sound of a second duck mimicking another species of duck.
Imitation of a creaking door.
Imitation of the phrase ” You bloody fool ” (complete Idiot).
Retired Australian researcher Peter Fullagar first recorded Ripper more than three decades ago. But its recordings only recently resurfaced by Professor Carel ten Cate of the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, who stumbled upon an “obscure reference” to a talking duck, in a book on bird vocalizations. . ” At first, I said to myself: “this is a hoax, that can’t be true “ », Smiles the professor. But when he heard the tapes, it turned out that the ducks were quite gifted with imitating skills.
Imitation of a slamming door.
Imitation of a door followed by a human phrase.
At least two other Ducks with similar skills could be listened to, although there is no recording of their vocalizations. a duck of Pensthorpe Natural Park in the United Kingdom was thus understood “ imitating a sniffing pony “, While a duck from the Slimbridge Wildfowl Trust reserve in England reproduced” the characteristic cough of its guardian and the squealing of a tourniquet ».
Where does this amazing ability come from?
According to Dominique Potvin, of the University of the Sunshine Coast (and who did not participate in the study), the barbed duck faculty is linked to its particular way of life. ” In this species of duck, the young maintain close contact with their parents and can therefore be strongly influenced by them from the beginning of life. », Explains the scientist. This species also performs courtship displays, unusual in birds. Vocalization capacities could therefore play a role in this context. According to the authors of the study, published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, two hypotheses are on the table to explain the rarity of the phenomenon: either the gift of imitation comes from a common ancestor of birds and would have disappeared in certain groups, or it evolved independently in the different species.
Besides birds, sound imitation has also been observed in some mammals, such as whales, dolphins, seals, bats where the asian elephants.
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