Scientists have discovered an elephant that can speak Korean.
But Koshik, who talks by putting his trunk in his mouth, has a
vocabulary of just five words. He was recorded at a zoo in South
Korea imitating human speech for words that translate into
English as "hello", "sit down", "no", "lie down" and "good". But
it is not believed he means what he says. Researchers reported
in the journal Current Biology that Koshik's language skills
could provide important insights into the biology and evolution
of vocal learning. Elephant communication expert Angela Stoeger,
of the University of Vienna, Austria, said: "Human speech
basically has two important aspects: pitch and timbre.
"Intriguingly, the elephant Koshik is capable of matching both
pitch and timbre patterns. He accurately imitates human formants
as well as the voice pitch of his trainers. "This is remarkable
considering the huge size, the long vocal tract, and other
anatomical differences between an elephant and a human."
Researchers played recordings of Kos