Pang Pha was a small calf when she came to the zoo in Berlin in 1987. Like most elephants in captivity, she was first served bananas with peels, which the animals usually devour whole.
But Pang Pha’s attendants treated the little one like a princess and began peeling bananas for her. Years later, she learned to do it herself, reports CNN.
— When we heard that she can peel bananas, of course we were excited, says Michael Brecht, professor of neurobiology at Humboldt University who, together with his research team, conducted a study on Pang Pha.
It is apparently very rare for elephants to peel bananas, according to the study published in the Current Biology.
Pang Pha only did it with bananas that were slightly yellow-brown and when she was alone, without her flock around her. Yellow bananas were swallowed whole and brown bananas were shredded. The technique was to open the banana at the end and shake out the contents on the floor and then eat it.
Why was Pang Pha the only one among the zoo’s elephants to peel his bananas, the researchers asked. The solution to the riddle may lie in the fact that she was raised by humans:
“We assume that she acquired the knowledge by observing people,” the research group writes.