Batyr

Batyr (1969-1993) was an Asian Elephant claimed to be able to use a large amount of meaningful human speech^[1]. Living in a zoo in Kazakhstan, Batyr was widely published as having a vocabulary of more than 20 phrases. ^[2] A recording of Batyr saying "Batyr is good","Batyr is hungry" and using words such as "drink" and "give" was played on Kazakh state radio in 1980.

Like all cases of talking animals, claims are subject to the observer-expectancy effect - may be a meaningless form of mimicry, and are subject to fabrication for many reasons.

Biography

Born on July 23, 1969, he lived his entire life in the Karaganda Zoo in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. He died in 1993 having never seen or heard another elephant. Batyr was the offspring of once-wild Indian Elephants (a subspecies of the Asian Elephant). Batyr's mother "Palm" and father "Dubas"^[3] had been presented to Kazakhstan's Almaty Zoo by Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Batyr, whose name is a Turkic word meaning The Dashing Equestrian, The Man of Courage or The Athlete, was first alleged to speak just before New Year's Day in the winter of 1977. Zoo employees were the first to notice his "speech", but he soon delighted zoo-goers at large by appearing to ask his attendants for water and regularly praising (or, infrequently chastising) himself. By 1979, his fame as the "Speaking Elephant" had spread in the wake of various mass-media stories about his abilities. (Many of these contained considerable fabrication and wild conjecture.) Batyr's case was also included in several books on animal behaviour, and in the proceedings of several scientific conferences. These developments drew a spate of zoo visitors, and brought the offer of an exchange—Batyr for a rare Bonobo—from the Czechoslovak Circus; the offer was rejected by the zoo's employees.

A. N. Pogrebnoj-Aleksandroff, the doctor of sciences^[4] who studied Batyr's abilities and wrote many publications about him,^[5] said of the elephant:

«Batyr, on the level of natural blares, said the words (including a human slang) by manipulating a trunk. Having put the trunk in a mouth, pressing a tip of the trunk by the bottom of jaw and manipulating of tongue, said words. Besides, being in a corner of the cage (quite often at the nights) with the hanging down and weakened his trunk the elephant said words very silently — that sound is comparable with a sound of ultrasonic devices against mosquitoes or as peep of the mosquitoes, which human hearing well hears to approximately 40-year-old age. During pronouncing of words, only the tip of the trunk of the elephant has been clamped inside and Batyr made insignificant movements by a finger-shaped shoot on the trunk tip».[1]

Various audiovisual recordings were made during Pogrebnoj-Aleksandroff's studies of Batyr;some of these have been transferred to Russia's Moscow State University for further study.

Batyr died in 1993 when zookeepers accidentally gave him an overdose of soporific drugs.^[6][7]

Claimed Lexicon

Batyr is claimed to have had a vocabulary of about 20 words in Russian and Kazakh languages, to have imitated the sounds of other animals, and to have uttered short phrases (including words of human slang).^[8]

The full list of words and phrases reported to have been spoken by Batyr:

• «Баты́р» — Batyr — abruptly (the trunk in the mouth);
• «Я» — I'm — very abruptly and to combination of his name, at a long pronunciation so «I'm-Batyr», sounded almost together;
• «Ба́ты́р» — Batyr — thoughtfully-tenderly and lingeringly (the trunk in the mouth);
• «Батыр, Батыр, Батыр…» — Batyr, Batyr, Batyr — joyfully running in a cage (the trunk in the mouth);
• «Воды́» — Water — ask (the trunk in the mouth);
• «Хоро́ший» — Good — as is good fellow (the trunk in the mouth);
• «Батыр хоро́ший» — Good Batyr — (the trunk in the mouth);
• «Ой-ё-ёй» — Oh-yo — (it is very sonorous — the trunk in the mouth);
• «Дурак» — The Fool — seldom and abruptly (the trunk in the mouth);
• «Плохой» — Bad — it is rare (the trunk in the mouth);
• «Батыр плохой» — Bad Batyr — it is rare (the trunk in the mouth);
• «Иди́» — Go — (the trunk in the mouth);
• «Иди (на) хуй» — Go onto penis (on-similarity the English expression 'fuck you') — the obscene Russian slang; first and unique time during telecast shooting (the trunk in the mouth);
• «Хуй» — The Russian slang of the penis — seldom and abruptly (the trunk in the mouth);
• «Ба́-ба» — the short of "babushka" — the grandmother; short children's sound "ba" (the trunk in the mouth);
• «Да́» — Yes — (the trunk in the mouth);
• «Дай» — Give (me) — (the trunk in the mouth);
• «Дай-дай-дай» — Give, give, give... — (the trunk in the mouth);
• «Раз-два-три» — One, two, three — dancing, being turned and hopping (the trunk in the mouth);
• A human-like whistle;
• Human speech allegedly uttered at infrasonic and ultrasonic frequencies;
• A gnash imitative of rubber or polyfoam (foam plastic) on glass;
• The peep of rats or mice;
• The bark of dogs;
• The natural blares of elephants.

From the press

"SOVIET ZOO HAS TALKING ELEPHANT written by Richard Beeston in Moscow, Batyr, a 10 year old indian elephant at the Karaganda Zoo in soviet kazakhstan, can say phrases like 'Batyr is good' and verbs like 'drink' and 'give', a Moscow newspaper reported yesterday. Its said that a recording of its voice was heard recently on the Kazakh state radio. & he just pushes his trunk into his mouth and starts talking' said the deputy director of the zoo, Mr Boris Kosinsky, he told a correspondent from the young communist league newspaper that it all began 3 years ago when a startled night watchman reported that he had heard the elephant talking to itself" — The Daily Telegraph newspaper, 9th April 1980.

Publication

Scientific

• Scientific conference - Agricultural Institute; Tselinograd, the USSR - Kazakhstan 1983-1989
• The International scientifically-practical conference to an anniversary of the Moscow Zoo; Russia 1984
• The International scientifically-practical conference to an anniversary of the Almaty Zoo; Kazakhstan 1987
• The International scientifically-practical conference; Tallinn — Estonia 1989
• The International zoological conference; Institute of Zoology — Academy of Science Ukraine 1989
• The International scientifically-practical conference to the 125 anniversary of the Leningrad Zoo; Saint Petersburg Russia 1990

In Books

• «The most truthful history or who are talking? An Elephant?!» A.Pogrebnoj-Alexandroff 1979-1993 ISBN 0972126600
• «Reincarnation-Перевоплощение» A.Pogrebnoj-Alexandroff 2001 ISBN 097212666x
• «Speaking animals» A.Dubrov 2001 ISBN 5879690865
• «Speaking birds and speaking animals» O.Silaeva, V.Ilyichev, A.Dubrov 2005 ISBN 5944290161

Media

• Student documentary film: «Who speaks? The elephant…»; VGIK — Moscow (USSR)
• Audio record of Batyr's voice by the scientist and writer Pogrebnoj-Alexandroff (1979-1983)

See also

• Kosik
• Alex (parrot)
• Talking birds
• Talking animal
• N'kisi
• Koko (gorilla)
• Washoe (chimpanzee)
• Animal language

References