Can We Talk For a Second?

"If I could talk to the animals, just imagine in 0

Chattin' with a chimp in chimpanzee

Imagine talking to a tiger, chatting with a cheetah

What a neat achievement it would be!"

- Bobby Darin

If you asked a random person to, off the top of their head, give you one fast fact about parrots, it would almost certainly be that they can talk.  Since ancient times, the ability of these birds to mimic human speech has been commented on extensively.  How much they understand what they're saying has been subject to some debate, but the fact that they can mimic human speech in itself is remarkable.  Largely it's been considered so impressive because so few other animals can.

Or so it would seem.

It's also been appreciated that some other birds can mimic human speech - Edgar Alan Poe's Raven comes to mind... but ducks?  And yet, surely enough, an Australian musk duck named Old Ripper has been documented as mimicking human speech.

And what about mammals?  You'd think if any mammal was going to talk, it would be a primate... but efforts by scientists years ago to teach apes to speak gave very poor, very limited results.  Imagine the surprise of keepers at the New England Aquarium, however, when a young harbor seal that was turned over to their care proved itself capable of a few words and phrases of speech!  Hoover, who had been found abandoned on the coast of Maine and was raised by a local animal lover, was able to say a few words, including his name, becoming a local legend.  What's even more surprising is that, having sired several pups at the Aquarium, none of which seemed to have inherited his talent, one of his grandpups has also been able to speak... in a very gruff, raspy sort of way.

I guess it skips a generation.