By studying the habits of killer whales Orcinus orca, Austrian and canadian biologists found that the animals belonging to the same group, you can repeat the sounds typical for the other.

The ability to vocal mimicry in mammals is rare, however, bottlenose dolphins, close relatives of killer whales, to imitate each other can. Fixed some examples of such behavior and themselves Or. orca, but to conduct systematic observations have never tried.

In the new study took an involuntary part killer whales inhabiting the shores of the canadian Vancouver island. Recording published cetaceans sounds, the authors distributed by categories and received Sonograms.

As it turned out, orcas imitate vocal "dialects" of their relatives from other groups, even if any of them are not near. The frequency of such sounds small: they accounted for only 0.2% of the total volume of records. The degree of similarity of sonogram with each other in this varies widely.

Now, scientists intend to install, what benefit can bring'or. orca their unusual ability.

Full version of the report published in the journal Marine Mammal Science.