SOUTH KOREA: South Korean zookeeper claims his elephant can speak

Record ID: 184990

  • Title: SOUTH KOREA: South Korean zookeeper claims his elephant can speak
  • Date: 16th September 2006
  • Summary: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (SEPTEMBER 12, 2006) (REUTERS) RECORDED VOICE (AFTER NOISE ERASED): JO-AH, JO-AH, JO-AH ("good" in Korean by Koshick), JO-AH, JO-AH, JO-AH ("good" in Korean by Trainer Kim)
  • Embargoed: 1st October 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Nature / Environment,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA6V2WBVC17K8FBC79658KH5R8U
  • Story Text: South Korean zookeeper Kim Jong-kap has been training elephants to sit, stand and do simple tricks, but he never thought the giant animals might be able to learn to speak.
    So when Kim heard familiar Korean words uttered by 15-year-old elephant Koshick, he couldn't believe his ears. Just to make sure, Kim asked his colleagues to videotape Koshick while he was in his cage at night.
    Kim said he was amazed when he saw the footage - Koshick appeared to be practicing his pronunciation of words all night. Two years later, Kim says Koshick's pronunciation has improved.
    "I have taken care of Koshick for about ten years. Two years ago, he voiced words that were unclear, but now his pronunciation is very clear," said Kim.
    Now, Kim says he can discern the words Koshick mimics, such as "Good, good," "Not yet, not yet," "Lie down, lie down."
    Kim believes that Koshick may be the first elephant in the world to speak.
    "I checked all around to find any elephants that could speak any language. An elephant in Kenya could sound a noise made from trucks, but no elephant could speak any language we understand, I heard," Kim added.
    According to Bae Myung-jin, a professor at the School of Electronic Engineering at Soongshil University, sounds lower than 20 Hertz are inaudible to humans, such as sounds made by elephants. But Koshick's voice was measured at 132 Hertz.
    "Elephants' voices have a very low frequency between seven and 10 Hertz (Hz), so human beings cannot recognise it. But this elephant (Koshick) created a way to produce voices which human beings can hear," Professor Bae Myung-jin told Reuters Television.
    Bae said Koshick uses his nose to exhale air into points in his mouth to mimic Korean words. It is the same theory of playing the trumpet - air is blown into the trumpet to play the instrument, and the trumpeter presses on the keys to play different melodies.
    Koshick also uses his nose to control the air pressure, just as if a trumpeter would blow softly or harder into the mouthpiece.
    "He puts his nose into his mouth and exhales air on certain points of his mouth, then some specific sound can be produced on the constriction points," said Professor Bae.
    Bae used a spectrogram to compare the phonetic sounds and frequencies of Kim and Koshick saying the word "foot," which is pronounced as "bahl" in Korean. He found that the two voices showed a 94 percent resemblance in sound and frequency - which is considered very high as two sounds that show more than a 90 percent resemblance are considered difficult to discern.
    Kim and Professor Bae hope to find out if Koshick merely mimics Kim's voice or can actually understand the meanings of the words. The two also believe that Koshick can learn to speak words from different languages.
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