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Talking AnimalsHoover: Hello There, hello there, hey!There's a voice that conjures up visions of a cigar-chomping carnival barker. But the speaker is not human. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Hoover: Hello ThereThat's Hoover the Harbor Seal, recorded years ago at the New England Aquarium. Apparently over the years, Hoover picked up a few of the common phrases from people who leaned over his tank to try to speak to him.Hoover is just one of a number of animals I've recorded over the years who mimic human speech. Here's another.Rex: Hello RexThat was Rex the Starling, who was studied and trained by Doctor Meredith West. Rex not only mimicked speech, but also imitated household sounds like creaking doors.West: That was what we call jargon, a collection of sounds that Rex had overheard. And one of the things that Rex did was that he took bits and pieces out of conversation and then recreated them into other sentence forms. And that's something that people think a human infant does. Before it can speak many words articulately, it can give off very long strings of utterances that sound very much like human conversation, but like human conversation in a language that you don't quite know all the words.Rex: Morning RexHey, if you're a fan of Pulse of the Planet, please check out our website, pulseplanet.com for some exciting news. That's pulseplanet.com. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.