Not only parrots can imitate human speech, ducks can. As in the Donald Duck cartoon, a duck in an Australian nature reserve can talk copying phrases it hears from one of the reserve's handlers.
The Ripper, as the duck is called, lives at the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve Experts in Canberra, Australia. He managed to learn how to say sentences like a human, he even imitated sentences that sounded like "You bloody fool!" which means "You idiot!". Ripper sound is recorded as an audio file.
Quoted from The Canberra Times, it is believed this is the first time the sound of a duck imitating a human has been documented. The Ripper not only manages to say funny lines, but also imitates the sound of a door closing, and that's quite an impressive ability.
Carel ten Cate of Leiden University, the Netherlands, who studies vocal learning in birds, has verified the correctness of the recordings. When she first learned of the Ripper's unique talent, Cate initially thought it was a joke.
To confirm the truth, Cate contacted retired Australian scientist Peter J Fullagar. Years ago, Fullagar was the first to notice that musk ducks could mimic human speech.
Comparing with Fullagar's research, it is known that the Ripper and the musk duck that Fullagar observed 30 years ago, showed similar abilities. Cate also found more examples of ducks that can imitate sounds.
According to Cate, English ducks make sounds like snorting ponies, people coughing and doors creaking. If you're curious about how the Ripper imitates sound
