Animals never cease to amaze, but this discovery is truly eerie—a beluga whale mimicking human speech. While parrots are known for copying human phrases, hearing a whale do it is something else entirely.

It started when a diver at the National Marine Mammal Foundation in California asked, “Who told me to get out?” Confused researchers soon realized the sounds came from NOC, a nine-year-old beluga whale. NOC made noises at unusually low octaves, sounding shockingly human.

Whales, often called the “canaries of the sea” for their chirps, have long been rumored to mimic speech, but NOC was the first to be recorded doing so. A 2012 video of him resurfaced recently, leaving viewers more creeped out than amused.

Comments online joked about the whale’s eerie expression, with one user saying, “The thumbnail literally made my SOUL jump out of its body.” Another noted that NOC likely mimicked the distorted sounds of divers speaking underwater.

But belugas aren’t the only whales showing this talent. An orca whale was also recorded mimicking human sounds in a 2018 study. Professor Josep Call, a co-author of the study, explained, “They are flexible vocal learners and can copy sounds and movements not part of their natural behavior.”

This discovery shows just how fascinating—and mysterious—whales truly are.