Do elephants play tricks on each other? Watch video

At the Berlin Zoo, an Asian elephant named Mary astonished researchers by demonstrating an exceptional ability to use a hose to shower herself. Mary, 50 years old and a resident of the zoo since 1987, was observed grasping the hose with her trunk to wash her head, ears, back, and legs. This behavior was not taught by her caretakers, making it particularly surprising because Mary had "never had any example of this behavior."

Mary holds the hose just behind its tip to use it as a rigid showerhead when spraying her sides. To reach her back, she takes the hose farther from the tip and swings it to utilize the tool's flexibility, akin to a lasso. Researchers noted that "to spray her sides, Mary usually grasps the hose just behind the opening with her trunk," demonstrating her adaptability and precision in using the tool. She coordinates the hose with her limbs, often lifting her hind legs to allow the water to reach all parts of her body. Mary "deploys different strategies depending on the part of her body she is targeting," highlighting her problem-solving skills.

The elephant's ability to manipulate the hose varies depending on its size. When given the zoo's normal hose with a diameter of 24 millimeters, Mary showered almost exclusively with it. However, when presented with a thicker hose of 32 millimeters, she used her trunk more than the hose, and with the smallest hose of 13 millimeters, she spent the most time not showering at all. The researchers concluded that Mary "adapts her shower behaviors to the hose offered to her," showcasing her adaptability in using available resources.

The remarkable behavior caught the attention of researchers at Humboldt University in Berlin. Biologist Lena Kaufmann, a doctoral student in Dr. Michael Brecht's lab, initially noticed Mary's showering skills while observing the elephants during the zookeepers' morning rounds. Kaufmann quickly recorded the observation with her phone and shared it with her colleagues, leading to further analysis by co-author Lea Urban. Dr. Brecht, head of the laboratory, expressed his delight, saying, "I actually had a grin on my face all day because I thought it was so funny."

While Mary's sophisticated tool use was impressive, the researchers were even more astonished by the behavior of another elephant at the zoo, a younger female named Anchali. Anchali began interacting with Mary during her showering sessions by attempting to disrupt the water flow. She displayed complex behaviors such as lifting, bending, and compressing the hose with her trunk to kink it, effectively cutting off the water supply to Mary. In one instance, Anchali performed a "trunkstand," placing her trunk on the hose and lowering her body onto it to stop the water flow.

The researchers observed that Anchali's effectiveness in these maneuvers increased over time as she became better at the complicated task, stopping the flow for increasingly long periods. This led to debates among the research team about whether Anchali's behavior was playful, mischievous, or an intentional act of sabotage. Dr. Brecht commented, "When Anchali came up with a second behavior that interrupted the water flow to Mary, I was convinced she was trying to sabotage her."

Anchali's actions raised questions about the elephants' social interactions and cognitive abilities. The researchers wondered if Anchali was pranking Mary or if there was a deeper social dynamic at play. "Do elephants play tricks on each other in the wild?" Dr. Brecht mused. "When I saw Anchali's kink and clamp for the first time, I broke out in laughter." Biologist Kaufmann added, "It's not clearly answerable whether Anchali's goal was to stop the water."

Elephant trunks contain an estimated 150,000 muscle units and could be "the most sensitive organ found in mammals," allowing elephants to handle objects with precision comparable to the human hand. This sensitivity enables them to perform tasks such as picking up a grain of rice or unscrewing a screw.

The observations at the Berlin Zoo provide new insights into elephants' cognitive abilities and social behaviors. While tool use has been documented in elephants before, the use of a hose—a flexible, human-made object with flowing water—as a tool is exceptionally complex. Kaufmann noted that "a water hose is an 'exceptionally complex tool,' as it is flexible, can extend, and has water flowing through it."

"The research reiterates the idea that elephants show very sophisticated trunk behaviours," said Dr. Brecht. "Does she think it's funny? I think it's very funny, but we really don't know. Maybe she's just trying to be mean," he added.

While Mary's use of the hose demonstrates her adaptability and intelligence, Anchali's behavior adds another layer of complexity. The team cannot be entirely sure of Anchali's intentions, but they suspect that she might have been displaying a form of second-order tool use behavior. "It appeared that she was displaying some kind of second tool use behavior, possibly as an act of sabotage," the researchers noted.

Caretakers at the zoo have observed that Mary is a very dominant elephant and often becomes defensive of the hose, sometimes smacking Anchali with her trunk. "She doesn't particularly like the young ones and gets annoyed quickly," Kaufmann said. This tension might contribute to Anchali's attempts to interfere with Mary's showering. The researchers remain intrigued by whether Anchali's behavior is intentionally mischievous or simply playful.

The team also noticed that Mary has a side preference when manipulating the hose, targeting her left body side more when showering with the hose, despite being a "left-trunker." This lateralization is similar to how humans are either left-handed or right-handed. Such observations contribute to the understanding of individual differences in animal behaviors.

Sources: ORF Science, The New York Times, Die Zeit, Science Daily, The Independent, RPP Noticias, Diario de Sevilla, BBC Newsround, Scienze Notizie, Popular Science, The Guardian, The Sun, The Scottish Sun, IFLScience, Le Monde (Science), ABC News Australia, New Scientist, Wow TV, Die Welt, Spektrum der Wissenschaft

This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq