Asian elephant Koshik speaks Korean
Scientists believe Koshik learned to 'talk' by using his trunk in a bid bond with trainers
An elephant in a South Korean zoo is using his trunk to pick up not only food, but also human vocabulary.
An international team of scientists confirmed yesterday what the Everland Zoo has been saying for years: their 5.5-tonne tusker Koshik can talk, an unusual and possibly unprecedented talent.
The 22-year-old Asian elephant can reproduce five Korean words by tucking his trunk inside his mouth to modulate sound, the scientists said in a joint paper published online in Current Biology. They said he may have started imitating human speech because he was lonely.
Koshik can reproduce annyeong (hello), anja (sit down), aniya (no), nuwo (lie down) and joa (good), the paper says.
One researcher said there was no conclusive evidence Koshik understood the words he utters, although he did respond to words such as anja and nuwo.
Everland Zoo officials in the city of Yongin, 50 kilometres south of Seoul, said Koshik also can say ajik (not yet), but the researchers had not confirmed the accomplishment.