Watch elephants use a hose to bathe themselves – and prank others

Elephants are masters at utilizing a hose – thought of a posh device due to its flexibility, size and the physics of flowing water.

Researchers finding out three Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) at Berlin Zoo have been shocked to see how nimbly they manipulated a hose to bathe themselves and appeared to grasp tips on how to get the very best use out of it. They even appeared to play pranks on one another by stopping the circulate mid-shower – both by kinking the hose or compressing it with their trunks.

To succeed in extra distant elements of the physique, the elephants used a lasso-like method, holding the hose farther from the tip and swinging it over their backs.

Michael Brecht on the Humboldt College of Berlin says the elephant behaviour round hoses reminded the crew of the way in which youngsters would possibly play collectively.

“Elephants are exceptionally good with hoses and we very a lot surprise if that is associated to the purposeful similarity of trunks and hoses,” he says.

Simply as people are both left-handed or right-handed, African and Asian elephant people are both left or proper “trunkers”, preferring to bend their trunk in a single course. The researchers observed that the elephants additionally had a facet desire once they manipulated the hose. One of many elephants, named Mary, used her trunk for showering the appropriate facet of her physique however used the hose extra for the left facet.

One other of the elephants, named Anchali, confirmed 5 completely different behaviours to disrupt water circulate when Mary was attempting to bathe – hose positioning, lifting, kinking, regrasping the kink and compressing.

“This sabotage-like behaviour, if that’s what it’s, has been seen in solely only a few animals,” says Brecht.

Brecht’s earlier analysis suggests elephant trunks are some of the delicate physique elements within the animal kingdom, enabling them to deal with objects with related precision to the human hand.

“The analysis reiterates the concept elephants present very refined trunk behaviours,” he says.