Whale mimicking human speech

Whale mimicking human speech

Scientists have been stunned to discover an amazing recording of a whale mimicking a human voice.

The beluga whale, named NOC died in 2007 but had spent 30 years amongst humans at the National Marine Mammal Foundation based in San Diego in California.

Dr Sam Ridgeway, the main author of the study in the journal Current Biology, said that in 1984 they started hearing sounds near the whale enclosure that recalled two people speaking in the distance, too far away to be understood.

When a diver surfaced from the whale enclosure to ask his puzzled colleagues ‘Who told me to get out?’, the team concluded the word ‘out’ which was repeated several times, had come from NOC.

Dr Ridgway reckons NOC would have heard human speech from speakers above the water, and divers communicating below the water.

The team realised they had a rare case of whale mimicry on their hands and were able to record NOC, then nine-years old.

(Source)

Oarfish washed ashore

Oarfish washed ashore

In a bizarre incident in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, an oarfish, was washed ashore on bustling Medano Beach, which features a view of the end of the Baja California peninsula.

Oarfish are deep-water denizens that are rarely seen. But because of their long, slender appearance, and their bright-orange dorsal fins and manes, they helped spawn myths of sea serpents and sea monsters among ancient mariners.

(Source)

Boy finds 30,000-year-old mammoth remains

The fossilised remains. (Photo: Vesti TV)

Boy finds 30,000-year-old mammoth remains

A boy living in Russia's remote north has found the well-preserved remains of a 30,000-year-old adult mammoth, according to media reports.

The discovery was made near a weather station in the eastern Taimyr region, some 3000km northeast of Moscow.

News reports identified the boy as Yevgeny Salinder, son of a couple working at the Sopkarga polar weather station.

Salinder reportedly discovered the animal during a walk. News reports said the remains were that of a male mammoth aged 15 or 16 years, and that its skin, meat, fat hump and organs were extremely well-preserved.

According to the Pravda.ru news website, the last time mammoth remains of such quality were discovered in Russia was in 1901.

Scientists used axes, picks and a steam-blaster to melt the permafrost in an extraction operation lasting a week, the report said.

The mammoth probably died in the summer because it lacked an undercoat and had a large reserve of fat, the report said quoting Aleksei Tikhonov, deputy director of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

(Source)