This Elephant Learned To Use a Hose As a Shower. Then Her Rival Sought Revenge (science.org) 34
Slashdot reader sciencehabit shared this report from Science magazine: Elephants love showering to cool off, and most do so by sucking water into their trunks and spitting it over their bodies. But an elderly pachyderm named Mary has perfected the technique by using a hose as a showerhead, much in the way humans do. The behavior is a remarkable example of sophisticated tool use in the animal kingdom. But the story doesn't end there.
Mary's long, luxurious baths have drawn so much attention that an envious elephant at the Berlin Zoo has figured out how to shut the water off on her supersoaking rival—a type of sabotage rarely seen among animals.
Both behaviors, reported today in Current Biology, further cement elephants as complex thinkers, says Lucy Bates, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Portsmouth not involved in the study. The work, she says, 'suggests problem solving or even 'insight.''
Mary's long, luxurious baths have drawn so much attention that an envious elephant at the Berlin Zoo has figured out how to shut the water off on her supersoaking rival—a type of sabotage rarely seen among animals.
Both behaviors, reported today in Current Biology, further cement elephants as complex thinkers, says Lucy Bates, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Portsmouth not involved in the study. The work, she says, 'suggests problem solving or even 'insight.''
"Revenge" is clickbait (Score:5, Informative)
Using "revenge" in title is pretty clickbaity and an insult to the supposedly evil elephant. I watched the video where you simply see 2 elephants playing with a hose. The water isn't ever cut off in the video.
Even TFA admits it:
Bates says it’s not clear whether Anchali was vengeful toward Mary or was just teasing her in the way that some apes do while playing. But she says the findings show the importance of monitoring the behavior of captive animals over time. “I am convinced that elephants—and possibly lots of animals—do all sorts of interesting things that we often miss, or dismiss as one-offs or anecdotes.”
Re: "Revenge" is clickbait (Score:3)
We like to anthromorphize animals to be huge jerks like humans are. I guess to justify and normalize our rotten behavior.
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No, don't. Don't even think it.
I want Donald Trump to live a long and healthy life. With a good part of it inside a jail cell. I wish no worse on him than that.
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Statistically speaking, he's already lived a long life.
Re: "Revenge" is clickbait (Score:4, Informative)
We like to anthromorphize animals to be huge jerks like humans are.
Some animals definitely are jerks. Wasps, Canada geese, polar bears, hippos, just off the top of my head. Also even man's best friend [google.com] can be quite an asshole when they don't know you.
Re: "Revenge" is clickbait (Score:4, Funny)
Oh cats can be absolute asshats sometimes.
I had an old girlfriend about 10 years ago, and the first night she slept over, my cat who was pissed off she was kicked out the bedroom and seemingly intensively jealous of my gf (she seemed to think I was her partner, not this foul human harpy that was now in my bed lol)
The cat retaliated by ripping open her backpack, dragging her clothes all over the house , chewing holes in various things and urinating all over her clothes, then the next day when I opened the door, she ran in and immediately bit my new girlfriend on the face.
Little socks was a straight up malicious little cat when it came to my girlfriends.
My new cat (little socks was hit by a car about 4 years ago) is a little dude and he loves all my girlfriends. I guess he just sees me as one of the boys.
Re: "Revenge" is clickbait (Score:5, Informative)
Elephants are just as capable of being big jerks as humans, and some of their behaviors do resemble ours. They have excellent long-term memory and a capacity for learning from others. They grieve for lost family members, and females will die to protect their offspring. They also adopt orphans. They can be mischievous, resentful, and are known to take revenge.
One interesting area of study is the behavior of pubescent males:
https://www.bbcearth.com/news/... [bbcearth.com]
Chimpanzees as tool users (Score:3)
Not only do chimpanzees make and use tools, but one chimp was documented to have blamed his tools on what other chimps perceived to be a badly constructed termite extraction stick.
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As the old saying goes - 'tis the poor workchimp who blames his tools...
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Octopus and humans are the only jerks in the animal kingdom. Everything else is merely projection.
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The water isn't ever cut off in the video.
It looks like Elephant #2 is trying to kink the hose to stop the water flow.
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If you took the time to read the article instead of just looking at the pretty moving pictures you'd know that the elephant with the hose has a history of bullying the elephant kinking the hose. I'm not saying their conclusion is correct as I'm not looking at all the data but going off what the researchers are saying the elephant cutting off the water does seem to have a real reason to mess with the hose using elephant and it could certainly be described as "revenge"
"Then..." (Score:4, Insightful)
...is a typical clickbait indicator.
As society "progresses" (Score:2)
You ain't seen nothing, yet. Some elephants are planting simple crops, while others pick up a small tree trunk and lead others to go "take their fair share."
Re:Sometimes .. (Score:5, Informative)
the hyper masculine leader elephant hoard all the food
Elephant herds are matriarchal.
They are led by females.
Re:Sometimes .. (Score:5, Funny)
Shhhhh. Let him cook. I want to see how twisted the rabbit hole that's in his head is.
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Elephant herds are matriarchal.
They are led by females.
And it seems the males don't mind. If only...
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Interesting ideas, but clickbaity (Score:2)
But number 7 will shock you.
Not true intelligence until ... (Score:3)
Pandas also learned to shower (Score:2)
Is showering with a hose really that hard to figure out? There are videos of pandas doing that.
Whoooo (Score:1)
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No it's not, it's "News for nerds, things that matter." There has been an amazing variety of exceedingly popular non-techie stories on this site, such as (my personal favorite) the theft of a million pounds of maple syrup from the Canadian Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve (and yes, that's a real thing).
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Re: Whoooo (Score:2)
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Re: Whoooo (Score:2)
What? Do these people know any animals? (Score:2)
Mary's long, luxurious baths have drawn so much attention that an envious elephant at the Berlin Zoo has figured out how to shut the water off on her supersoaking rival—a type of sabotage rarely seen among animals.
I question whether whoever said "rarely seen" has ever met any animals. We're all wired with the same circuitry. And I've seen everything from reptiles to fish to cats and dogs be assholes to one another. Sabotage is a pretty regular occurrence in a multiple pet house. The tricks dogs play on one another can be particularly funny if it doesn't get too serious. Cats, on the other hand, are straight up assholes when they wanna be. Cute, fuzzy little assholes. One of my favorites had a habit of walking up to d
Smarter still? (Score:2)
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It certainly looked like a jerk. It was crimping the hose then letting go when the first elephant had it pointed towards it's eye. That happened multiple times. Maybe it was on purpose, maybe not. Maybe it was trying to help clean off the dirtiest parts. People put more importance on cleaning their eyes than their backs.