Even elephants love to play pranks! Watch the hilarious moment an animal turns off the water while his friend tries to shower
Whether it’s a stapler in jello or a classic whoopee cushion, many of us love to play cheeky pranks on our friends.
And a new study shows we’re not alone.
Zookeepers at the Berlin Zoo were amazed when they saw an Asian elephant fooling his friend.
The elephant, named Anchali, sabotaged her friend Mary’s shower by lifting the hose and kinking it to disrupt the water flow.
The researchers are now wondering what the findings in zoo elephants mean for elephants in their natural environment.
‘Do elephants fool each other in the wild?’ asked senior author Professor Michael Brecht, from Humboldt University of Berlin.
‘When I first saw Anchali’s nod and clamp, I burst out laughing.
“So, I wonder, does Anchali find this funny too, or is she just mean?”
Zookeepers at the Berlin Zoo were amazed when they saw an Asian elephant fooling his friend. The elephant, named Anchali (right), sabotaged her friend Mary’s shower (left) by lifting and kinking the hose to disrupt the water flow
Anchali began to pull the hose toward and away from Mary as she lifted it and nodded to disrupt the flow of water
The prank – alongside Mary’s skilled showering skills – has been documented in a new report published in the journal Current Biology
“Elephants are great with snakes,” said Professor Brecht.
‘As is often the case with elephants, the use of snake tools varies greatly from animal to animal; elephant Maria is the queen of showering.’
The researchers made the discovery after one of their team members witnessed Mary showering one day and captured it on film.
She presented it to her colleagues, who were immediately impressed and decided to analyze the behavior further.
They discovered that Mary grabbed the hose behind the end to use it as a stiff shower head and then systematically showered her body, coordinating the water hose with her limbs.
To reach her back, she switches to a lasso strategy, taking the snake further up and swinging it over her body.
When Mary got a larger and heavier hose, she used her suitcase to wash herself instead of the bulkier and less useful tool.
The prank – alongside Mary’s skilled showering skills – has been documented in a new report published in the journal Current Biology
The researchers say their findings provide a new example of purposeful use of tools.
Other animals, including chimpanzees, dolphins and crows, are also known for their ability to use tools.
What surprised the team most, however, was the way his fellow Asian elephant Anchali reacted while showering Mary.
Around shower time, they noticed the two elephants exhibiting aggressive interactions.
At one point, Anchali began to pull the hose toward her and away from Mary, lifting it and nodding it to disrupt the flow of water.
Although they cannot be sure of Anchali’s intentions, it strongly appeared that the elephant exhibited some kind of second-order behavior in tool use, disabling a tool that was more conventionally used by a fellow elephant, perhaps as a act of sabotage.
“The surprise was certainly Anchali’s nodding and squeezing behavior,” said Professor Brecht.
“Nobody thought she’d be smart enough to pull off a trick like that.”
ELEPHANTS ARE VERY INTELLIGENT AND VERY SOCIAL WITH ‘SOME HUMAN PERSONAL TRAITS’
Research has shown that the emotional characteristics of elephants are similar to those of humans.
It turns out that the animals have different personalities.
They can be aggressive, attentive and outgoing.
For the study, scientists asked elephant riders, or mahouts, to answer questions about the behavior of the animals they worked with every day.
A new study has found that elephants, like humans, have different personalities. They can be aggressive, attentive and outgoing. The photo shows an elephant with its mahout, or rider, with whom the animal works every day in Myanmar’s timber industry
Dr. Martin Steltmann, who worked on the new report, explained how his team defined the traits that categorize elephants.
He said, ‘Attention is related to how an elephant behaves and perceives its environment.
‘Sociability describes how an elephant seeks proximity to other elephants and people and how popular they are as social partners.
‘Aggressiveness shows how aggressively an elephant behaves towards other elephants and how much it disrupts their social interaction.’
Dr. Steltmann’s team is hopeful that the new research can help elephant conservation.