An Asian elephant in the German zoo has stunned scientists and visitors with its master showering skills without training.
According to Independent, the scientist has dubbed the elephant who was filmed demonstrating the “remarkable skill” of washing itself with a hose as the “queen of showering.”
The elephant named Mary at Berlin Zoo uses her trunk to hold a hose and wash her body properly and methodically. She makes sure to clean her whole body by lifting up her limbs and moving the water hose from left to right, which researchers called “sophisticated behavior.”
Moreover, Lena Kaufmann from Humboldt University who filmed Mary taking a shower said, “Elephants spray themselves with water, mud, or dust all the time, and it’s been shown before that over 80% of observed tool-use behaviors in elephants are actually body care-related.”
Kaufman explained, “Mary’s very skillful behavior with this water hose made us think that maybe elephants have somewhat (an) intuitive understanding of hoses, potentially due to the similarities with their own trunks.”
Furthermore, researchers believe that the water hose is an “exceptionally complex tool” because it is flexible and has moments because of flowing water, but Mary used it smartly and was able to adapt her technique based on the type of hose.
