Amazing stuff!
"When scientists spotted an elderly pachyderm named Mary using a hose to shower herself off at the Berlin Zoo, they were impressed with her tool-using prowess. Elephants are already famous for their smarts, but Mary’s dexterity with the hose—changing her grip to spray different parts of her body, an apparent understanding of water ballistics, and other skills—suggested an even more sophisticated insight than researchers had imagined. That wasn’t the end of the story, however.
It turns out that one of Mary’s comrades wasn’t as impressed. A much younger pachyderm named Anchali, seemingly in response to all of the attention Mary was getting, figured out how to shut the hose off—kinking it and stepping on it—a type of sabotage rarely seen among animals.
The observations further cement elephants as complex thinkers, says Lucy Bates, a behavioral ecologist who was not involved in the study. She says both behaviors suggest insight instead of simple trial-and-error. But that’s a difficult thing to prove without more observations, she says. “Obviously we don’t know if [Anchali’s] original intention was to stop Mary’s shower, but the fact she persevered and got better at doing this is quite compelling.”"
From the highlights and abstract:
"Highlights
• Elephants show elegant and elaborate water-hose tool use
• Elephants can use hoses in different ways depending on purpose
• Elephants show marked individual differences in showering behaviors
• Elephant Anchali disrupted water flow to showering elephant Mary by hose clamping
Summary
Since Jane Goodall’s famous observations of stick tool use by chimpanzees, animal tool use has been observed in numerous species, including many primates, dolphins, and birds. Some animals, such as New Caledonian crows, even craft tools. Elephants frequently use tools and also modify them. We studied water-hose tool use in Asian zoo elephants. Flexibility, extension, and water flow make hoses exceptionally complex tools. Individual elephants differed markedly in their water-hose handling. Female elephant Mary displayed sophisticated hose-showering behaviors. She showed lateralized hose handling, systematically showered her body, and coordinated the trunk-held water hose with limb behaviors. Mary usually grasped the hose behind the tip, using it as a stiff shower head. To reach her back, however, she grasped the hose further from the tip and swung it on her back, using hose flexibility and ballistics. Aggressive interactions between Mary and the younger female elephant, Anchali, ensued around Mary’s showering time. At some point, Anchali started pulling the water hose toward herself, lifting and kinking it, then regrasping and compressing the kink. This kink-and-clamp behavior disrupted water flow and was repeated in several sessions as a strict sequence of maneuvers. The efficacy of water flow disruption increased over time. In control experiments with multiple hoses, it was not clear whether Anchali specifically targeted Mary’s showering hose. We also observed Anchali pressing down on the water hose, performing an on-hose trunk stand, which also disrupted water flow. We conclude that elephants show sophisticated hose tool use and manipulation."
This elephant learned to use a hose as a shower. Then her rival sought revenge "Behaviors reveal sophisticated tool use—and possible “pranking”—among pachyderms"
Figure 1 Mary shows lateralized hose tool use and adjusts it to the showered body part
Figure 2 Mary adapts showering behavior to different water hoses
Figure 3 Anchali disrupts water flow to Mary by hose-kink-and-clamp behavior
No comments:
Post a Comment