By Stephen Beech via SWNS
A clever elephant has cleaned up by learning how to use a hose as a shower.
Mary, an Asian elephant, was caught on camera showering at Berlin Zoo in Germany.
And researchers also have evidence of another elephant knowing how to turn the water off, perhaps as a “prank.”
Previous studies have shown that tool use isn’t unique to humans with chimpanzees using sticks to dig for insects while dolphins and crows are also known for their ability to employ objects.
Now a new report, published in the journal Current Biology, highlights elephants’ “remarkable” skill in using a hose as a flexible shower head.
Study co-senior author Professor Michael Brecht, of the Humboldt University of Berlin, said: “Elephants are amazing with hoses.
“As it is often the case with elephants, hose tool use behaviours come out very differently from animal to animal; elephant Mary is the queen of showering.”
The researchers made the discovery after co-senior author Lena Kaufmann, a PhD student at Humboldt, saw Mary showering at the zoo and captured it on film.
She took the footage back to her colleagues who were immediately impressed.
Study first author Lea Urban decided to analyse the behaviour in greater detail.
Brecht said: “I had not thought about hoses as tools much before, but what came out from Lea’s work is that elephants have an exquisite understanding of these tools.”
The research team discovered that Mary “systematically” showers her body, coordinating the water hose with her limbs.
They said she usually grasps the hose behind its tip to use it as a “stiff” shower head.
To reach her back, Mary switches to a “lasso strategy” – grasping the hose higher up and swinging it over her body.
When presented with a larger and heavier hose, Mary used her trunk to wash instead of the bulkier and less useful hose.
The researchers say that their findings offer a new example of goal-directed tool use.
But what surprised them most was the way another Asian elephant, called Anchali, reacted during Mary’s showering.
The researchers said the the two elephants showed “aggressive” interactions around showering time.
At one point, Anchali started pulling the hose toward herself and away from Mary, lifting and kinking it to disrupt the flow of water.
While they can’t be sure of Anchali’s intentions, the research team say it looked a lot like the elephant was displaying a kind of “second order tool use behaviour” – disabling a tool in more conventional use by a fellow elephant, perhaps as an act of sabotage.
Brecht said: “The surprise was certainly Anchali’s kink-and-clamp behaviour.
“Nobody had thought that she’d be smart enough to pull off such a trick.”
He says there has been a lot of debate in the lab about Anchali’s antics and what it meant.
The team then saw Anchali find another way to disrupt Mary’s shower.
Anchali did what the researchers refer to as a “trunkstand” to stop the water flow where she placed her trunk on the hose and then lowered her massive body onto it.
Brecht explained that the elephants are well trained not to step on hoses, lest the keepers scold them.
As a result, he says, they almost never do so.
The team suspect that’s why Anchali has come up with more “challenging” ways to stop the water from flowing during Mary’s showers.
Brecht said: “When Anchali came up with a second behaviour that disrupted water flow to Mary, I became pretty convinced that she is trying to sabotage Mary.”
He said the study is a reminder of elephants’ “extraordinary” manipulative skills, made possible by the grasping ability of their trunks.
The research team are intrigued to discover what the findings in zoo elephants mean for elephants in their natural environments.
Brecht added: “Do elephants play tricks on each other in the wild?
“When I saw Anchali’s kink and clamp for the first time, I broke out in laughter.
“So, I wonder, does Anchali also think this is funny, or is she just being mean?”
