Scientists claim to have had a 20-minute conversation with a whale.
An animal called Twain ‘spoke’ to researchers from the SETI Institute and University of California, Davis (UC Davis) after it responded to a pre-recorded ‘contact call’.
The scientists played a greeting call known as a ‘whup/throp’ through underwater speakers and Twain responded by approaching the boat and responding with a greeting call of her own.
The team say that this marks the first communication between humans and whales in their own language and could even pave the way for interactions with aliens in the future.
It was found that Twain was changing the frequency of her own calls in response to the broadcast – showing that she was engaging in a type of interactive conversation with the recorded call.
Lead author Dr. Brenda McCowan, of UC Davis, said: “We believe this is the first such communicative exchange between humans and humpback whales in the humpback ‘language’.”
