Scientists recently discovered a new behavior in elephants that is associated with bananas. The study showed that
It is noteworthy that, unlike other examplesthis behavior, the elephant from the German zoo was not trained to do this. Researchers believe she learned this skill herself by watching zookeepers peel bananas for her.
The footage shows an elephant namedPang Pha cleans the fruit in his own way. It's different from the one keepers use, but it's a remarkable feat for an animal without a thumb, the scientists write.
Lena Kaufmann, doctoral student at the University of BerlinHumboldt and the first author of the study, began working with an elephant to study how animals sense touch with their trunk. Soon after, zookeepers began talking about Pang Pha's other skills, such as how she peels bananas. At first the scientist didn’t believe it. To make sure of the elephant's abilities, Kaufmann began feeding her bananas.
It is noteworthy that the elephant cleaned only ripebananas with small brown spots on the peel, and fresh fruit from the supermarket swallowed whole. Several experiments have shown that Pang Pha sometimes peels and eats overripe bananas, but she doesn't seem to like them.
She also didn't peel the bananas during thegroup feeding. This takes time, and she needs to eat quickly, otherwise the other elephants may leave her without fruit. In this case, Pang Pha swallows the bananas whole, but prefers to savor the last one.
Pang Pha's feat was described in an article and published in the journal Current Biology.
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