CNN reports today that the type of penguin living and breeding at the Monterey Bay Aquarium use the name speech patterns as humans – with the most frequently used words being short.
Imagine human words such as “the,” “and,” “of ” and “a.”
Italian researchers said this is the first time this has been found in an animal that was not a primate.
The study found that the vocal sequences contained three distinct syllables of different lengths, with the “words” used most often the shortest, while the longest sequences were made up of shorter syllables.
African penguins are native to the coasts of South Africa and Namibia and can be seen locally at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
OPTIONAL: The songs’ sounds are similar to the bray of a donkey, according to a paper published Tuesday, and are responsible for the flightless birds’ less-than-flattering nickname: the jackass penguin.
