Scientists stunned after elephant showers herself with a water hose – but footage also catches a cheeky ‘prank’
A CLEVER elephant has proven just how smart her kind is in remarkable new footage.
Mary, an Asian elephant at Berlin Zoo, was captured showering herself with a water hose to the shock of scientists.
The footage shows Mary methodically washing her body with the hose, using her limbs and trunk to guide it.
“Elephants spray themselves with water, mud or dust all the time, and it’s been shown before that over 80% of observed tool-use behaviours in elephants are actually body care-related,” said Lena Kaufmann, from Humbolt University.
However, Mary’s use of a water hose is something quite special as it is an “exceptionally complex tool” that has flexibility, can extend in length, and has water flowing through it, Kaufmann added.
“Mary’s very skilful in behaviour with this water hose made us think that maybe elephants have somewhat (an) intuitive understanding of hoses, potentially due to the similarities with their own trunks.”
The video also caught another “unexpected bonus”.
Mary’s zoo pal Anchali was captured attempting an apparent prank too.
Experts believe this was an example of Anchali trying to “sabotage” Mary’s shower by cutting off the water supply using her trunk.
The elephant did this by kinking and clamping the hose, as well as putting pressure on the pipe in an attempt to stop the water flow.
Researchers have put both moments down as examples of goal-directed behaviour using tools, a skill once thought to be unique to humans.
More recently, it has been observed in other species such as chimpanzees, crows and dolphins.
“The surprise was certainly Anchali’s kink-and-clamp behaviour,” explained Michael Brecht, a professor at Humboldt University.
“Nobody had thought that she’d be smart enough to pull off such a trick.
“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 added: “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 elephants are trained not to step on hoses, so Anchali’s “trunkstand” – when she put her trunk on the hose before lowering her massive body on to it – is likely to be an attempt to disrupt Mary’s shower.
Scientists now wonder whether elephants behave like this in the wild too.
Their research was published in the journal Current Biology.