Elephant Vocal Mimicry and Human Speech

Elephants are capable of extraordinary vocal mimicry, including reproducing human speech, a skill that demonstrates their remarkable memory and cognitive abilities. Studying this phenomenon reveals not only the complexity of elephant communication but also the incredible mental focus required to master these sounds.

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Elephant Vocal Mimicry and Human Speech

An Elephant Imitates Human Speech

Discover the remarkable story of Koshik, an elephant who not only learned how to say six Korean words but also initiated conversation with his keepers. (Click on the first two links for the audio and video of Koshik saying the word ‘hello’ in Korean.)

  1. Stoeger, Angela S. “An Elephant that Speaks Korean.” Eurekalet! AAAS, 2012. Audio Recording. https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/595931
  2. Stoeger, Angela S. “An Elephant that Speaks Korean.” Eurekalet! AAAS, 2012. Video Recording. https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/595928
  3. Beeston, Richard. “Asian Elephant Can Say Human Phrases.” The Telegraph, April 9, 1980.
  4. Choi, Charles. “Say What?! This Elephant Can Speak Korean – Out Loud.” NBC News, November 1, 2012. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna49643352
  5. Herman, Steve. “Researchers Verify Elephant Mimics Human Speech.” VOA News, November 1, 2022. https://www.voanews.com/a/south-korean-zoo-elephant-mimics-human-speech/1537520.html
  6. “Meet Koshik, A Male Elephant Who Mimics the Sound of Human Speech.” The Guardian, November 1, 2012.
  7. Stoeger,Angela S., Daniel Mietchen, Sukhum Oh, Shermin de Silva, Christian T. Herbst, Soowhan Kwon, and W. Tecumeseh Fitch. “An Asian Elephant Imitates Human Speech.” Current Biology 22 (November 1, 2012): 2144-2148.
  8. Stromberg, Joseph. “This Elephant Learned to Speak Korean: Koshik, an Asian Elephant at a South Korean Zoo, Learned to Uncannily Mimic Five Korean Words by Stuffing His Trunk in his Mouth.” Smithsonian Magazine, November 1, 2012. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/video-this-elephant-learned-to-speak-korean-104813016/

Elephant Vocal Mimicry

This comprehensive list compiles key scientific citations and documents the remarkable discovery of elephant vocal mimicry for Elephant Mountain.

  1. “Elephants Learn Through Copying.” BBC News, March 23, 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4377297.stm
  2. “Batyr” Bionity Encyclopedia. https://www.bionity.com/en/encyclopedia/Batyr.html
  3. “Forest Elephants and Infrasound.” Elephant Listening Project. https://www.elephantlisteningproject.org/all-about-infrasound/
  4. Poole, Joyce, Peter L. Tyack, Angela S. Stoeger-Horwath, and Stephanie Watwood. “Elephants are Capable of Vocal Learning.” Nature (March 24, 2025): 434-456.
  5. Milius, Susan. “Big Mimics: African Elephants Can Learn to Copy Sounds.” Science News, March 23, 2005. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/big-mimics-african-elephants-can-learn-copy-sounds
  6. Madin, Kate. “To Decipher Odd Elephant Calls, Call in a Whale Expert.” Oceanus Magazine, 2005, p. 10.
  7. Pardo, Michael A., Kurt Fristrup, David Lolchuragi, Joyce Poole, Petter Granli, Cynthia Moss, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, and George Wittemyer. “African Elephants Address One Another with Individually Specific Calls.” bioRxiv, (August 27, 2023) 1-38. Published online 2024. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.25.554872v1