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erronis

(17,180 posts)
Fri Nov 8, 2024, 05:56 PM Nov 8

Elephant turns a hose into sophisticated showering tool

https://phys.org/news/2024-11-elephant-hose-sophisticated-showering-tool.html



Tool use isn't unique to humans. Chimpanzees use sticks as tools. Dolphins, crows, and elephants are known for their tool-use abilities, too. Now a report in Current Biology on November 8, 2024, highlights elephants' remarkable skill in using a hose as a flexible shower head. As an unexpected bonus, researchers say they also have evidence that a fellow elephant knows how to turn the water off, perhaps as a kind of "prank."

"Elephants are amazing with hoses," says Michael Brecht of the Humboldt University of Berlin, one of the senior authors. "As it is often the case with elephants, hose tool-use behaviors come out very differently from animal to animal; elephant Mary is the queen of showering."

The researchers made the discovery after the paper's other senior author, Lena Kaufmann, also of Humbolt University of Berlin, witnessed the Asian elephant Mary at the Berlin Zoo showering one day and captured it on film. She took it back to her colleagues, who were immediately impressed. First study author Lea Urban decided to analyze the behavior in more detail.

"I had not thought about hoses as tools much before, but what came out from Lea's work is that elephants have an exquisite understanding of these tools," Brecht says.
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Elephant turns a hose into sophisticated showering tool (Original Post) erronis Nov 8 OP
I love this! SheltieLover Nov 8 #1
I sorta wanted to find out if that elephant figured out how to do the "privates" erronis Nov 8 #2
Sabotage, or practical joke? JoseBalow Nov 8 #3
Humanity happened before humans. cachukis Nov 8 #4

erronis

(17,180 posts)
2. I sorta wanted to find out if that elephant figured out how to do the "privates"
Fri Nov 8, 2024, 06:16 PM
Nov 8

But I think everyone else would wonder the same.

Knowing animal intelligence, they probably know a lot more about that stuff than these dumb (dump?) primates that think they are stable geniues.

Thanks for your rec, SheltieLover. I've had Shelties, Border Collies, Aussies, and tons of mixes. fun-fun-fun and exhausting!

JoseBalow

(5,646 posts)
3. Sabotage, or practical joke?
Fri Nov 8, 2024, 06:45 PM
Nov 8

I have played that prank where you crimp the hose, and when they look to see what happened, release it so they get sprayed in the face. It looks like the same thing to me!

I love elephants, they are so smart and loving. Thanks for posting this.

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