An orangutan with the uncanny ability to mimic human speech may upend long-held scientific beliefs about the evolution of spoken language.
Residing in the Indianapolis Zoo, the remarkable ape named Rocky was able to recreate a vast array of verbal sounds when he heard them emanating from researchers.
Over the course of a two-month study, Rocky was able to imitate an incredible 500 vowel-like sounds that were unlike anything heard from orangutans in the wild.
The findings appear to smash previous scientific beliefs that great apes were incapable of learning new sounds and also unable to control the modulation of their voice.
As such, the possibility may exist that spoken language evolved from our simian ancestors rather than being developed by humans at a later time.
While Rocky hasn't said anything particularly intriguing just yet, we presume he's working out the logistics of forming the sentence, "please let me out of this cage."
Source: BBC News
