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Elephants Showcase Remarkable Hose Manipulation Skills

Elephants are known for their remarkable intelligence and social behaviors. They exhibit a range of abilities, from peeling bananas and mourning their deceased to engaging in complex problem-solving and greeting fellow elephants. Recent research has uncovered yet another unique talent: the use of hoses for self-cleaning and, intriguingly, potential playful pranks on one another. This research has been detailed in a new publication in the journal Current Biology.

Lucy Bates, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Portsmouth, remarked on the findings, expressing confidence that elephants and many other animals engage in a variety of fascinating behaviors frequently overlooked or dismissed as mere anecdotes.

At the Berlin Zoo, a 54-year-old Asian elephant named Mary has demonstrated an impressive ability to use a hose not just for bathing, but also to adapt her technique for different parts of her body. Mary, who was born in the wild and has resided in several zoos, skillfully utilizes her trunk to manipulate the hose, employing various approaches to ensure she can clean every part of herself. This includes using a lasso-like technique to reach her back, adjusting her grip for maximum effectiveness, and even raising her leg to facilitate a thorough shower.

Researchers tested Mary with hoses of varying sizes to gauge her preferences and abilities. Mary clearly favored the standard-size hose, which appeared easier for her to maneuver effectively with her trunk compared to the smaller or larger options.

Study co-author Michael Brecht, a computational neuroscientist at Humboldt University of Berlin, playfully referred to Mary as “the queen of showering,” reflecting on her exceptional hose-handling skills.

In contrast, another Asian elephant at the zoo, a 12-year-old named Anchali, seemingly exhibited a playful understanding of the hose, using it to disrupt Mary’s bathing time. While Mary showered, Anchali would often clamp or stand on the hose, effectively stopping the water flow. Researchers suggest this behavior might have been a deliberate attempt to interrupt Mary’s enjoyment, as Anchali became increasingly adept at kinking the hose over time. She also developed a new behavior termed a “trunk stand,” where she leans into her trunk to press down on the hose.

While Anchali’s actions could be seen as playful mischief, researchers noted possible underlying motivations linked to past aggressive interactions between the two elephants. Brecht expressed a desire to understand whether Anchali found the interruptions amusing or was driven by a more spiteful impulse. Despite attempts to draw conclusions, researchers were unable to definitively prove Anchali’s motives, as her interactions mostly occurred with hoses within her reach.

Mary and Anchali’s hose interactions also highlighted lateralized behaviors among the elephants, akin to left- and right-handedness in humans. The study noted that the elephants displayed preferences for showering one side of their bodies more than the other, with Mary showing a tendency to use her left trunk to clean the left side more often.

The researchers posited that Mary’s sophisticated methodology in using the hose could be attributed to her anatomical structure, suggesting she might have an intuitive understanding of the tool, seeing it as analogous to her trunk. This research adds to the growing body of evidence that non-human animals are capable of using tools effectively, a trait shared with various species such as cockatoos, macaques, dolphins, and crows. Hoses present a unique challenge as tools due to their length, flexibility, and the dynamics of flowing water, earning them classification as “complex” tools.

Brecht acknowledged that this study prompted him to reconsider the capabilities of elephants with tools like hoses, highlighting their nuanced understanding of such instruments.

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