(CNN) In most human languages, the most frequently used words are short. Think "the," and, "of " and "a."

It turns out the same thing goes for penguins too.

A team of researchers based in Italy have found " compelling evidence " that African penguins use the same speech patterns as we do -- the first time this has been found in an animal other than a primate.

The team recorded 590 breeding calls known as "ecstatic display songs." They were sung by single birds during the mating season, from 28 adult African penguins in three different colonies in Italian zoos.

An African penguin walks during a full moon at Boulders Beach June 29,2010 in Simon's Town, South Africa.

The songs' sounds are similar to the bray of a donkey, according to the paper which published Tuesday, and are responsible for the flightless birds' less-than-flattering nickname: the jackass penguin.

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