Some birds have the ability to vocalize whatever they hear, whether it is ambient noise or even human speech. And one bird in particular, which lives in a zoo in Australia, managed to imitate the cry of a baby in a way that was very faithful to reality.
The animal in question is a seven-year-old songbird, native to Australia, called an echo. According to one of the zoo’s observers, Leanne Golebioski, the bird began to learn to imitate children about a year ago. He believes the skill was developed by listening to the children of visitors, perfecting the “cry” over the past year, even though the place has been closed since the start of the pandemic.
Hear the perfect imitation of Echo:
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Believe me you weren’t expecting this wake-up call! You’re not hearing things, our resident lyrical Echo has the amazing ability to repeat a variety of calls – including a baby cry!
️ via Keeper Sami #forthewild #tarongatv #animal Science pic.twitter.com/RyU4XpABos
— Taronga Zoo (@tangazoo) August 30, 2021
Scientists theorize that lyre birds have a syrinx, the organ responsible for producing and emitting the sounds of songbirds, which makes other species the envy, albeit simple. The limb is considered relatively primitive because it has only three pairs of muscles instead of four, but it is extremely powerful.
In addition to imitating a baby’s cry, lyrebirds are able to imitate drill and fire alarm sounds, including the “Empty Now” speech. The species is already known to be able to imitate anthropogenic sounds, that is, sounds derived from human activities, imitating the construction sounds of the lyre bird chuck, as shown in the video below:
Source: science alert
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