Talking Elephant from South Korea

This is a video from youtube. It is amazing to me and shows humans are not the only intelligent animals in the world.

An elephant at a South Korean zoo has attracted the attention of an international research team amid reports that the animal can talk. According to zoo officials, 20-year old "Kosik" can vocalize at least seven words in Korean and the scientists are eager to learn how.

Evolution in action? You be the judge!

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel


S & F! This is pretty cool! I know that there's been dogs and birds that can mimic human speech but an elephant, you know, with it's extra large nose and all, mimicking human speech is pretty good. Elephants are smart animals and listen to commands given to them by humans so I would be surprised if the elephant actually knows the meaning of the words he's expressing.

Maybe they need to put a dolphin into the same cage. May turn out to break the language barrier of both species.

Im glad he's the only living elephant that can talk, I mean, Id be freaked if dead elephants could talk.

And the bit about imitating other elephants?? rofl.

Seriously though, keeping intelligent animals captive, is it a sign of desperation or desire that they learn how to sound like their captors?

That is pretty cool and I had no idea that other elephants mimic sounds. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if he does know what the words mean, even if only in an abstract manner. However, just the ability to sound out the words is impressive and shows potential for maybe a new evolutionary direction.


--airspoon

Even the way he's standing when he vocalizes, it's like he's saying "Look at me." Neat. My kitty is staring at me right now, her stares speak volumes.

I think its evolution. the elephant is evolving. why are we so blinded by our own self worth and ego to realize other inhabitants of the planet are evolving aswell. the united nations may one day grow to include members both on or off world and none of them human....

...thats very cool... evolution in action?... i dont think so...

...my 3yr old boxer can say "mama" and "i want it" very clearly... he says "out" but it sounds more like "ow"... he knows what those words mean and is a proficient nag... he cant say shut up yet but i'm sure its only a matter of time (and frustration), lol...

...theres quite a few videos on youtube of dogs talking - a boxer named oscar that my boxer has a fit over and a husky that sings...

Amazing



If you haven`t seen this before,you`ll also love this.....

People on this site sure do love animals.
Still I linger for the one.

reply to post by Wyn Hawks


Videos like these are pretty cool. I've got some books on the intelligence of animals and amazing animal behavior and even though animals can't build houses and drive cars, there is an intelligence to have a social network, even in birds.

We've got a cat that'll go to the door and say "Me out." Can't get her to say anything else though.

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel

can vocalize at least seven words

I'm having difficulty finding references, but a number of years ago I read about a group in Hungary, I think, that claimed to have taught dolphins how to speak fluently...as in, to the point that they were able to have full-on conversations with them.

The biggest problem to obvercome with the inability of dolphins to create the required sounds. So they built a device that would translate the sounds of human speech into sounds that dolphins were capable of reproducing, and vice versa. Humans would speak into the device, and the sound would be mathematically translated into a series of squeeks and whistles that dolphins could reproduce. The sounds didn't mean anything to the dolphins, at first...but eventually they learned to associate certain combinations with objects in the environment, then actions, then ideas...and the dolphins could reproduce those sounds which the device would pick up and translate back into human speech sounds for the humans.

Again, having trouble finding it...but it was far more impressive than "seven words."

Originally posted by gps777
Amazing

If you haven`t seen this before,you`ll also love this.....

That is unbelievable, I have never seen anything like that, it raises so many qustions, not just about the intelligence of other animals, but seperates the boundaries between what we humans like to think seperate us from other animals.

reply to post by woodwardjnr


absolutely.


It doesn`t sit right with me to watch animals perform for our entertainment,though I have no idea how the elephant was taught to do that.

I was in awe in watching the care taken as the elephant readied his/her trunk to get the prcisse first stroke of the brush (I love that bit).Then floored to watch the drawing and what the finished product was.

Awesome. You notice the sounds are guttural, as would be expected without refined vocal cords. Throaty.
Elephants fall extremely high on the animal intelligence scale, shortly after primates. So they are associating sounds such as "good", with a specific person and behavior, is not that difficult to believe.
I love it.

Nor do I believe this is evolution, more likely he is the say, Barbra Striesand or Albert Einstein of elephants.
Well developed intelligence and a mischievous and determined personality.

I wish he spoke english!

im waiting for the day when tehy start wiping us out

cool vid so

The elephant talking isn't as impressive as some other chatty animals. Parrots can also talk and not just repeat words. Scientists have recently changed their opinion from "dumb parrots" to "most intelligent birds".... they can talk alright. All dolphins talk as well using a complex languages which we are still unable to translate after many failed attempts. As many of you know pigs are very smart and very very similar to humans in many aspects. Think about that when you eat your next BBQ .

reply to post by SassyCat


The difference is parrots have always talked, do so quite well, and have since they were in captivity. Sometimes they are overheard even repeating human sounds in the wild if they have been exposed to them.

Elephants talking, on the otherhand, is quite a novelty. An aberration from what is known. Thus, the thread.

Parrots have always been considered "intelligent", this is not big news either, as in "scientists recently" decided.
This is the way it has always been.
Comparing parrots to elephants, is like, well, comparing parrots to elephants. I use this example because there is more difference between a parrot and an elephant than there is between an apple and an orange.

www.reuters.com...

I so hope this is real - it made waking up totally worth it this morning

(I'm generally pretty happy to wake up anyhow)

:-)

One day someone will teach some animal to say it wants a lawyer.

Then we will have hours of entertaining TV.

reply to post by Wyn Hawks


the elephant talking korean was good, but i was thinking that was because some words in korean sound more like noises, but i suppose it dos'nt sound like that if your korean.

the husky dog sold it for me, amazing video, you can tell the dog is trying its hardest to repeat back the words, although if your korean i bet it just sounds like noises.

thanks for the husky video, bookmarked it to show other people, it may change their opinions on a few things.