Elephant at the Berlin Zoo learns how to peel bananas
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Delicious, potassium-rich bananas come in their own biodegradable packaging; bananas are indeed one of the best snacks. And not only people think so, since this fruit is a popular delicacy among most representatives of the animal world, including gorillas, bats and … elephants.
For the most part, elephants grab bananas with their trunks and put them whole in their mouths.
However, one particularly finicky Asian elephant at the Berlin Zoo doesn’t seem to enjoy eating the fruit’s tough skin, so she has learned to peel it off.
Pang Pha squeezes the banana to break off the top, shakes out the contents, removes the peel, picks up the soft flesh and puts it in his mouth. Because the elephant lives on her own, scientists believe she most likely learned the technique by watching zookeepers peel bananas themselves.
This suggests that elephants have the cognitive ability to learn “complex forms of manipulative behavior inherited from humans.”
“We have discovered a unique behavior,” said Dr. Michael Brecht from the Berlin Center for Computational Neuroscience. Humboldt at the Bernstein University of Berlin.
“What makes elephant peeling bananas so unique is the combination of factors—skill, speed, personality, and presumed human origins—rather than any one behavioral element.”
Pang Pha does not peel every banana she is given, but eats whole green or yellow bananas like her peers.
She also categorically refuses completely brown bananas, but when offered a yellow banana with brown spots, she applies her peeling technique.
However, she does this while alone. When there are other elephants around, Pang Pha eats as much as he can, whole, and then leaves one, the last one, to be cleaned later.
None of the other elephants in the zoo show this behavior, and there are only a few reported similar cases.
It has long been known that elephants are especially dexterous with their trunks. They paint, break into food trucks, and even tickle a person’s nose.
In addition, they often display high intelligence, being able to guess a person’s age and ethnicity.
But the elephant’s banana peel still demonstrates a new level of manipulative and cognitive abilities.
Scientists still don’t know exactly why Pang Pha is the only elephant at the Berlin Zoo to demonstrate peeling bananas: “The fact that Pang Pha’s daughter Anchali did not learn how to peel bananas suggests that this skill is not easily transmitted through training. Pha’s tendency to clean only when on its own may have limited possibilities for learning to observe.”
Christina DENISYUK.
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