Koshik the talking elephant just seeking a Seoul-mate
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/koshik-the-talking-elephant-just-seeking-a-seoul-mate/story-fnb64oi6-1226509171074THERE are several very good reasons why Koshik should not be able to speak Korean. The first is that Korean is a hard language to learn.
The second is that Koshik's vocal tract is shaped very differently from that of most Koreans. But, primarily, Koshik should not be able to speak Korean because Koshik is an elephant.
Yet, as described in a scientific paper yesterday (Thursday), Koshik can do just that. Given that the only verified report of an elephant previously achieving something similar was when one was recorded imitating lorry sounds, zoologists consider Koshik's feat to be nothing short of remarkable.
The 22-year-old Asian elephant, who lives in a South Korean zoo, now joins Hoover the seal and Noc the beluga whale in the unlikely line-up of mammals to use human words. He can say hello, sit down, no, lie down, and good.
"No one really knew if it was fake or not," she said. She decided there was a professional imperative to go to Korea. "It took until 2010 to finally get there. And we began to scientifically investigate it." Dr Stoeger is not a Korean speaker herself so she gave recordings to Korean speakers who had not previously heard of him and asked them to write down what he was saying.
She found that the listeners converged on the same or similar words. The achievement is particularly impressive because, even if so minded, an elephant should be anatomically unable to imitate humans. "An elephant's larynx is the same as ours but it's much bigger," said Dr Stoeger, whose research is published in Current Biology. "Usually elephants vocalise on a very low frequency. They also they don't have lips like ours, which we use for articulation.
"Much as with humans sticking their fingers in their mouth to wolf-whistle, Koshik's solution is to make creative use of his trunk. He sticks his trunk into his mouth. He puts it inside and then moves it around."
Dr Stoeger and her colleagues believe that rather than Koshik being some kind of exceptional elephant savant, the behaviour could be explained by the environment in which he grew up. Citing another report, alas unverified, of an even more extraordinary zoo elephant that was bilingual in Russian and Kazakh, she hypothesises that the language skills could be a reaction to loneliness. "Koshik was the only elephant at the zoo for seven years; humans were his only social contact," she said. "Basically it was an attempt to bond. He was trying to make friends."
Praise for Koshik's talents has not been universal. "He's better in the vowels and quite bad in the consonants," Dr Stoeger said apologetically. But, she added, since he is an elephant, "we may excuse him this".
