Who loves crying baby? Not I, if I can say politely. But imagine somebody (read lyrebird) picking this specific sound to mimic and then goes on to pierce your eardrums with its shrill sound??
Not a pleasant scene but you can't dismiss it for not being interesting.?
Yes, Taronga zoo recently shared a video of? Echo, the resident lyrebird bird in Sydney zoo mimicking a crying baby. The sound is so uncannily similar to a crying baby that you might be mistaken that it's actually a baby crying.?
?Zoo authorities say that these birds are masters at belting out different vocal sounds and in past have been recorded producing car horns to jackhammers to chainsaw sounds.
In the case of Echo, the Unit supervisor at Taronga Zoo, Leanne Golebiowski, told The Guardian that Echo began trying out snippets of the crying a year ago.
But you might wonder that how these birds specifically mimicked baby sound considering all zoos across Australia are closed due to ongoing pandemic and there had been no visitors in the zoo in the past year.?
Authorities again come for our enlightenment. They explain that these birds have an excellent memory and they can remember sounds quite well enough to practice it even after the source of the sound has been taken away.
¡°I can only assume that he picked it up from our guests. Obviously, he has been working on his craft during lockdown!¡± Golebiowski said.?
This explains how Echo was able to remember the sound of a crying baby and hone its skills during the lockdown. You see, they utilised their time quite well.?
Zookeepers also explain that for birds to pick up any sound among so many sounds in a particular area it's important that the sound is repeated frequently and in close quarters.
So, in this case, we can guess that a lot of crying babies must have visited the zoo a year ago-and probably- like us- Echo might have found this sound annoying -? or for parents of toddlers benefit- liked it and have started mimicking it.?
If this story left you wanting to know more about the lyrebird, we got you an interesting video by renowned natural historian and BBC wildlife show presenter David Attenborough! Enjoy?