Elephant learns to peel a banana on her own at the zoo – 04/11/2023 – Science

The elephant Pang Pha was born at the zoo in Berlin (ALE) and raised by her handlers, who fed her bananas. Now, as an adult, she is the only one in the area who knows how to peel them.

She probably learned to do this by watching humans, but she only adopts this behavior when no other elephants are around — and she also rejects overripe bananas.

The case of this Asian elephant is reported in an article published in Current Biology. The authors describe how the animal holds the banana with its trunk, shakes it to remove the peel and throws it on the ground until only the pulp is obtained.

atypical behavior

This is an atypical behavior of Pang Pha, as she only peels bananas if she is alone and if the fruit is at a certain point of ripeness. If there are other elephants nearby, she eats them whole, like her companions, but keeps one in her trunk to peel later.

The group of German researchers who studied the elephant believe that “very likely” she learned to peel bananas by watching her caregivers do the same.

“We found a very unique behavior,” said Michael Brecht of the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience at Humboldt University in Berlin, “because it’s a combination of factors — skill, speed, individuality and possible inspiration from humans — rather than a single behavioral element. “.

Like other elephants, Pha eats whole green or yellow bananas, but she rejects brown bananas as overripe and only bothers to peel those that are yellow with brown spots.

When such bananas are offered to the group of elephants at the zoo, Pha’s behavior changes. She eats as many whole bananas as possible and saves the last one to peel later.

Rare skill in elephants

The ability to peel bananas is, say the authors, rare in elephants, and no other elephants in the Berlin Zoo do this.

This skill does not seem to be easily transmitted by learning, as Pang Pha’s daughter Anchali does not act like her mother.

Previous research has shown that African elephants can interpret human gestures and classify people into ethnic groups, but complex human-derived manipulation behaviors such as peeling bananas “look quite unique”.

Pha’s behavior suggests that, overall, elephants “have surprising cognitive abilities and impressive manipulative ability,” according to the research.

Elephants have remarkable dexterity with their trunks, and their behavior is determined by experience, Brecht added.

(EFE)