Why can parrots imitate human speech, but our closest relatives, chimpanzees and gorillas, cannot?
In: Biology
Primates have vocal cords which are used to make sound, then your mouth and tongue to form that sound (humming) into more distinct sounds used for words. Human vocal chords and tongues have evolved in a way that makes them precisely controllable (which is needed for speech), while our close relatives do not have this adaption, so are only capable of making barks and yelps.
Birds make sound through a completely different method. Instead of using vocal chords, lips, and tongues, they have a syrinx, which are almost like speakers. They just control the vibration of the syrinx very precisely, so they can imitate humans, animals, and even machines. Many birds don’t have particularly sophisticated syrinx, so they can only squawk and chirp, but some birds have evolved the precise control needed to emulate almost any noise they hear.
Parrots evolved to be able to imitate all manner of sounds. Our speech is just another sound to them.
Other primates did not evolve to speak or imitate sounds, their throats, voiceboxes, mouth, tongue etc. are the wrong shape to imitate our speech. They are physically incapable even if they wanted too.
I have heard that some apes can, but it’s not common.
At least one Elephant can talk. It speaks a few words of Korean. You can find a video on the internet.
Quite a few birds can actually speak. Pretty much everything in the Corvid family like Ravens can “quoth the raven, ‘nevermore'” Starlings can also do the same. Many other birds as well. Parrots are the most famous, but they are far from the only ones.
There was reportedly one, and only one, seal that could say a few words. Make of that what you will.
So it’s more common than you think. But many birds have the ability to imitate a wide variety of sounds and some are intelligent enough to understand what words mean. That combination is not really present in any other animal to the same degree. Apes have the intelligence, but simply not the vocal cords.
As an Australian that goes camping in the Aussie bush a lot, I can safely say that the lyrebird can scare the crap out of you really easily (imitating chainsaw sounds, crocodile growls, dingo howls). Kinda disconcerting when sleeping in a canvas swag.
Many bird species can reproduce many kinds of sounds. Their sarynx can simply do more than our larynx. Some can even sing at a rate that our brains cannot differentiate the notes, and we have to use recording devices and waveform displays to see the change.
Parrots in particular, however, can imitate human speech so well because they also use their tongues in addition to the sarynx. This helps them reproduce sounds that are more similar to human speech as compared to other bird families.
Latest Answers