Amazing Footage Shows Elephant Peeling Banana With Her Trunk; How Intelligent Could These Creatures Become?

By observing zookeepers, Asian elephant named Pang Pha learned how to peel bananas using her trunk.

Elephant Peels Banana With Her Trunk

Unlike other elephants, Pang Pha from Berlin Zoo has an unusual way of eating her bananas. Other elephants eat bananas whole, but Pang Pha peels them first. Amazing footage was able to capture Pang Pha pulling off this impressive feat, while her case was documented in the Current Biology journal.

Live Science notes that, in the video, Pang Pha first takes hold of the banana with the edge of her trunk. She then twists and turns her trunk around and ends up breaking the banana by ripping it out of its stem. Pang Pha then throws the remnants to the ground.

Afterward, she picks the banana by pinching a peel with her trunk. Pang Pha peels the fruit by capitalizing on the item's weight.

While this may not be how zookeepers typically peel the fruit, it is still impressive for the thumbless Pang Pha to pull off such a feat.

In a statement, Michael Brecht, who is from Humboldt University in Berlin, says that they have observed an extremely unique behavior. Brecht notes that what makes Pang Pha's peeling extremely unique is that it is actually a mix of various factors, such as speed, skillfulness, individuality, and putative human origin. It is was not merely a singular behavior with a single element.

Gizmodo also adds that there was a social factor to Pang Pha's banana-feeling behavior. Pang Pha is quite shy about this peeling behavior when she is in a group. When she eats bananas with others, she ends up gobbling them whole. However, she also saves a piece for herself to peel and eat later. Live Science notes that she takes her time peeling this last banana on her own by around 60% of the time.

She also has some preferences. Pang Pha gobbles up green bananas without peeling them, but she takes the time to peel the riper and sweeter ones. However, Pang Pha does not like extremely ripe ones.

The researchers also add that Pang Pha peels bananas faster than humans. Though she occasionally peels and consumes overripe bananas, she does not exactly enjoy the overripe fruit.

How Did Pang Pha Learn How To Peel Bananas?

According to Live Science, Pang Pha never trained to peel bananas. The scientists think that Pang Pha learned this skill simply by observing zookeepers peeling bananas for her. These zookeepers raised her and regularly fed her peeled bananas.

Interestingly, there are no other elephants in the Berlin Zoo that have adopted the same skill as Pang Pha. Nevertheless, the findings show that elephants have remarkable cognitive capacities. In fact, National Geographic notes that elephants have been seen to display remarkable intelligence using their trunks before.

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