SEOUL: Parrots have done it, and now so has a 16 year old elephant.

For those Disney fans out there thinking about Dumbo, we're not talking about flight, but speech.

The 16 year old elephant from Seoul's Everland theme park started talking 2 years ago. It has a vocabulary of 8 basic Korean words, which include "sit", "yes", "no", and "lie down." Zoologists are amazed and believe it is the first elephant in the world to be able to do so.

"At first I couldn't believe it. After I listened carefully, I discovered it was mimicking my speech" said Kim Jong-gap, who has been taking care of the elephant for the past 10 years.

The elephant can speak by placing its' trunk into its mouth and wriggling it as it exhales. It's the same principle as when people stick their fingers in their mouths when whistling. It's an ingenious way for the elephant to overcome the problem of not having a human tongue. The elephant's pronounciation is also extremely accurate.

A professor from Soongsil University was asked to scientifically analyze the elephant's speech. The results of the study indicated that the elephant's pronunciation had an accuracy of around 94%. At the moment, it is still unknown whether the elephant actually understands the meaning of the words that it says. The theme park's veterinarian said that "we believe the elephant intentionally learnt its caretaker's speech so that it could establish a closer relationship with him."

Elephants like to imitate the sounds that they hear. Last year, Nature magazine published a report on an African elephant that had learned to mimic the sound of a truck.