[imagesource:here]

Sure Michael Winslow, one of the stars of the 1980s movie franchise Police Academy, is famous for mimicking various sound effects of non-human things without any tools.

But when an animal makes human sounds and talks like a person, that’s where the real money is at.

A musk duck named Ripper at the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve in Australia learnt to talk like a human, so to speak.

This is evident via a 34-year-old recording that appears to be the first documented evidence of the species being able to mimic sounds, per the BBC.

Ripper can be heard in the recording saying what sounds very much like “you bloody fool”, which researchers believe he picked up from one of his caretakers’ catchphrases.

Lend Ripper your ears:

Ripper was first recorded in 1987 by researcher Dr Peter Fullagar.

The recording resurfaced recently when Prof Carel ten Cate of Leiden University in the Netherlands got his hands on the recordings:

Prof ten Cate had been researching vocal learning in birds when he came across a mysterious reference to a talking musk duck who could imitate other sounds, such as a slamming door.

“This came as a big surprise … it remained unnoticed by researchers in the vocal learning field until now,” Prof ten Cate told the university website.

“That makes it a very special rediscovery.”

Musk ducks are now listed alongside songbirds, parrots, hummingbirds, and mynah birds as a species capable of mimicking human language.

Any animal mimicking human sounds is remarkable, but a duck? Well, Prof ten Cate reckons that is groundbreaking.

Also in the world of talking birds, we have a lyrebird named Echo who picked up a peculiar song during his zoo’s COVID-19 lockdown in Australia.

Echo can copy the wailing of a crying baby with mortifying accuracy:

Bet you weren’t expecting this wake-up call! You’re not hearing things, our resident lyrebird Echo has the AMAZING ability to replicate a variety of calls – including a baby’s cry!

📽️ via keeper Sam #forthewild #tarongatv #animalantics pic.twitter.com/RyU4XpABos

— Taronga Zoo (@tarongazoo) August 30, 2021

In another Australian sanctuary, you’ll notice that Winslow has some major competition from this lyrebird mimicking a children’s toy gun and more:

[source:bbc]