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HOT on the heels of the beluga whale that mimics human speech, comes Koshik 鈥� the elephant that speaks Korean. He knows five words, including the Korean for 鈥渓ie down鈥�, 鈥済ood鈥� and 鈥渉ello鈥�.
Angela Stoeger-Horwath at the University of Vienna, Austria, thinks this is a result of a youth spent in captivity. With no other elephants around, he befriended humans by mimicking them.
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Since elephants don鈥檛 have lips, Koshik produces vocalisations by putting his trunk in his mouth (). However, exactly how he manoeuvres it to talk is a mystery.
These days, Koshik doesn鈥檛 speak as much Korean 鈥� he recently acquired a girlfriend, so is wooing her with elephant sounds.