dIn the great bestiary of the world, the elephant occupies a special place. Its mass, its memory, the attention it pays to its young people, its elders… and its dead are proverbial. In terms of records, the pachyderm continues to stand out as the one that sleeps the least, around two hours per night. But few imagine behind his clumsy appearance a tool handler of exceptional skill.
Images taken at the Berlin Zoo by researchers at Humboldt University show experienced Asian elephant Mary using a garden hose to shower. The tube delicately held by its trunk sprays its head, its ears, its body, one paw, the other paw, in front, behind, with a precision worthy of us humans.
Can’t reach the back of your body, even with your torso raised? It doesn’t matter, grab the hose a little further from your mouth and take advantage of the elasticity of the rubber. “like a bond”underlines the German team in the article that accompanies the video, published on Friday, November 8 in the magazine Current biology. All the more surprising since Mary never benefited from the slightest example in this area.
Unique abilities
Biologist Lena Kaufmann made this observation by chance, while working on learning tasks with another Asian elephant at the zoo. He quickly recorded it with his phone and showed it to his colleagues. “We were very impressed by the elegance of the gesture”says Michael Brecht, director of the laboratory. A research project was launched to see how far Mary could go and if her four companions could do the same.
This is because tool use is an important area in the study of animal behavior. For a long time we saw it as a human exclusivity. Jane Goodall, the first, brought chimpanzees to this exclusive club. Since then, they have been joined by dolphins, crows and even otters. Elephants too, who use branches to scare away insects. Except that the flexibility, the extension or even the flow of liquid make the garden hose a tool. “exceptionally complex”.
In this game, Mary demonstrated unique abilities. The male and the other three females that share their life in the zoo do not show the same dexterity, favoring the use of their trunk. Mary uses the hose to drink, to fill her trunk before spraying herself, and directly to shower, deploying, as we have seen, different strategies depending on the part of the body she is targeting. But not just any pipe. In addition to his favorite shower, with a diameter of 24 millimeters, the researchers offered him one with a section of 32 millimeters and another with a section of 13 millimeters. He used the wider tube, but less frequently, and largely avoided the narrower one.
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