Killer Whales - They are called like that because they are great predators of the sea. Still, other names that they have are Orcas or Blackfish. These are facts that a lot of people might know, probably. But one that you probably ignored was the fact that they are incredibly social and have a complex vocal communication with other species.
There has been a research made by SeaWorld San Diego in California, where they analyzed the Killer Whales in respect with other species and their learning ability. Apparently, as it has been stated by the Daily Mail, most species make noises that are natural to them but they do not learn them.
The noises simply come along with birth and that is the main reason why there are species in the first place between animals. Animals have the particularity of being able to communicate among them, because they handle the same "natural" sounds, but not with other species, who have other "natural" sounds.
But what if that wasn't the case? With orcas or killer whales, the case is different. They have been discovered to be able to actually learn new noises. Not any random ones, or at least not that it has been found, but they can lean the noises from dolphins.
In the SeaWorld research, what happened was that they learned it and manifested it by changing their sounds. It seems that the killer whales handle with certain whistles and pulsed calls. But when they were mixed up with the dolphins, they produced more clicks and whistles and less pulsed calls.
The researchers have said about this: "killer whales seem to be really motivated to match the features of their social partners. It's important to understand how they acquire their vocalization patterns, and lifelong, to what degree they can change it, because there are a number of different cetacean populations on the decline right now."
