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The Whisperer
Who knew grey seals were capable of singing movie themes and mimicking speech? According to researchers at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, it is highly possible.
The researchers have trained three marine mamals to copy sound sequences and that resulted in a several-note rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the Star Wars theme tune. They were also found to be able to copy human speech sounds including vowels.
Lead researcher, Amanda Stansbury, said: “Copies were not perfect but given that these are not typical seal sounds, it is pretty impressive.”
As impressive as it might be, the academics don’t expect they will be conversing with the seals anytime soon as copying language is one part but understanding it is another.
If Jedi master Yoda was there, he’d probably tell them to do or do not as there is no try.
