Orcas can mimic human speech, according to a new study, putting the black and white whales in an exclusive club of animal impersonators that includes parrots and elephants.

"We wanted to see how flexible a killer whale can be in copying sounds," said Professor Josep Call at the University of St. Andrews, co-author of the study which was published in "Proceedings of the Royal Society B".  The research involved an Orca named "Wilkie" who, most unfortunately, lives in a tank at Marineland Aquarium in Antibes, France.  Critics accuse Marineland of mistreating whales and other animals in recent years, and the Blue Planet Society says some animals have died there under "horrific circumstances".

Professor Call and the research team presented Wilkie with a set of sounds including those made by other Orcas, also known as killer whales.  Wilkie was able to reproduce them.

But they also exposed her to human speech - and she was able to reproduce the "hello" and "Amy", as well as the sound of a human laugh.  And they say she did so with greater accuracy than she did with the sounds of her fellow whales.

The researchers say there's no evidence that Wilkie understands the meanings of the human sounds she recreated.