Orangutan 'speaks' by mimicking

An orangutan has shown the ability to emulate human speech for the first time, a feat that gets us closer to understanding how our speech first evolved.

[thecursor]

Okay, for the non-scientists: the ape is mimicking the human vocal range in a way that is technically supposed to be impossible for a great ape. That’s kind of huge.

[Perktube]

sounds like someone before morning coffee.

[liberispuritatem]

Can't wait for him to say "Get me out of here, you fuckers!".

[Vern_Trertnert]

Human: "hi!"
Ape: "heugh."
Human: "Ground breaking. Have a snack."

[dortmall]

For the tone-deaf non-believers: The orangutan is matching the pitch that the trainer makes. He fails twice in the video and she doesn't give him anything. She does it again and he makes the same pitch and is rewarded. He does it over and over with different pitches. That's why it's impressive.

[GEORGEN]

orangutans are usually quiet so you don't hear their voice often so i was really surprise by how deep their voice is lol

[axro]

The orangutan sounds like: "OK, here you have your goddamn 'Hi!'. Now give me that peanut and then leave me alone".

[trollsthatlol]

Sounds like a much older human male saying "Hi" half-heartedly haha. I love it

[YoungsVlog]

Her first vocalization was a D# note and the orangutan replied the same note 1 octave down. Then on the second clear vocalization, she made a C# note and he replied with the same note one octave down. Pitch recognition is cool. I know loads of people who couldn't do that as well.

[debrawebster]

When he shouts Nooo! That will be impressive

[fraggzbN]

Woman:"Say something."

Orangutan:"Bo'o'o'wo'a mate!"

[Coder-zxnb]

Ok, I'm lost. They trained it with treats to make a fucking grunting noise. How is that speaking?

[ssss-dfqz]

Why is she saying "huuuu"? Say "hi" you silly woman!

[Zopdoz]

@0:09, sounds like Rick Ross's famous grunt *"HUH"* !! 😂😂😂

[RAPPOSIR]

Give dem magic mushrooms in a week they will start to speak

[toomanyhungrycats]

Animals are tone based along with facial/body language. Some can learn ways to say things to humans by association and will utilize it to better communicate with us. Ive been studying animal language since i was a kid. :3 i can mimic several different animal sounds and even communicate with animals sometimes. Directions are a bit difficult to convey to animals but usually i only need to convey friendliness and they usually get it. Shy or skittish animals take extra patience to earn trust especially if they were abused by humans. All they want is to be respected loved and understood.

[osmanchakhkiev]

Orangutan’s voice sounds for more closer to human’s than other ape’s voices

[HbLogos]

The ultimate achievement would be to get an ape to say “Hi, I’m Paul!”

[LilBigTvk]

If there voice is this deep can you imagine Gorillas

[Phlogiston]

This is very impressive, but I'd like to know how they taught him this skill. Orangutans are very intelligent, they can pass the mirror test, can mentally solve problems, etc. so I think scientists should consider these traits. It would be a waste if they were dumbing down the lessons.