An elephant at Berlin Zoo is making a big impression on everyone, thanks to how she enjoys snack time.
The Asian elephant, whose name is Pang Pha, taught herself how to peel bananas. The catch? She only uses her trunk to do so, the New York Post reported Thursday.
However, she is quite picky when it comes to that particular snack. She will swallow whole green or yellow bananas but throws away the brown ones.
Her favorite bananas are those with brown spots and she uses her trunk to break the fruit in half before getting to the tasty treat underneath the peel.
Video footage shows a caretaker handing Pang Pha a yellow and brown banana. The elephant grabs the food with her trunk,a then appears to remove the peel with her special technique. Moments later, she tosses it into her mouth before picking up the leftovers:
The Safaris Africana website describes elephant trunks as a “wonder of nature,” adding it is a combination of the animal’s nose and upper lip.
Elephants use their trunks to lift heavy objects, strip bark off trees, dig for water, and break tree branches. However, they also use them to wipe their faces, pluck food out of trees, and pull grass out of the ground to eat.
According to the Post, researchers documented Pang Pha’s abilities in the journal called Current Biology, and the outlet noted that neuroscientist Michael Brecht, who is with Humboldt University of Berlin and also among the paper’s authors, said, “What makes Pang Pha’s banana peeling so unique is a combination of factors — skillfulness, speed, individuality and the putatively human origin — rather than a single behavioral element.”
The elephant is believed to have learned the skill by watching humans do it for her at feeding time, “showing that elephants have more cognitive and manipulative abilities than they let on,” the outlet said.
She has been living at the zoo since the late 1980s but does not exhibit her special ability when other elephants are present, and the others do not peel and eat bananas as she does.
According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Asian elephant is known as the biggest land mammal found on the Asian continent, and they are very sociable creatures.
Video footage from the Oregon Zoo shows an Asian elephant enjoying a swim:
“More than two-thirds of an elephant’s day may be spent feeding on grasses, but it also eats large amounts of tree bark, roots, leaves, and small stems. Cultivated crops such as bananas, rice, and sugarcane are favorite foods,” the WWF’s site read.
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