Author:
Ralls Katherine,Fiorelli Patricia,Gish Sheri
Abstract
Vocalizations recorded from captive harbor seals are described and illustrated. Pups of both sexes vocalized, but females over 1 year of age rarely vocalized. Sexually mature males were the most vocal animals. Two adult males produced sounds that mimicked one or more English words and phrases, which is noteworthy in view of the rarity of demonstrated vocal learning in mammals. Although similar in many ways to other seal sounds, these speechlike sounds contained a variety of human speech cues. We speculate that male harbor seals may mimic other males in the wild.
Publisher
Canadian Science Publishing
Subject
Animal Science and Zoology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Cited by
148 articles.
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