by A zoo elephant taught herself to peel bananas by watching zookeepers.
Pha, a female Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) at the Berlin Zoo in Germany, rips off the stem of a banana, pinches the frayed skin with her trunk and uses the fruit's weight to peel.
It's an ingenious twist on the human method, which normally involves two hands and opposable thumbs.
Keepers at the zoo used to feed Pha peeled bananas when she was a calf, which is probably where she got the idea.
Pha only peels ripe bananas with brown spots.
She eats green and yellow bananas whole and rejects brown bananas.
When fed in a group where her bananas might get stolen by other hungry elephants, she peels only her last banana, presumably to savor it.
Source
Pha, a female Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) at the Berlin Zoo in Germany, rips off the stem of a banana, pinches the frayed skin with her trunk and uses the fruit's weight to peel.
It's an ingenious twist on the human method, which normally involves two hands and opposable thumbs.
Keepers at the zoo used to feed Pha peeled bananas when she was a calf, which is probably where she got the idea.
Pha only peels ripe bananas with brown spots.
She eats green and yellow bananas whole and rejects brown bananas.
When fed in a group where her bananas might get stolen by other hungry elephants, she peels only her last banana, presumably to savor it.
Source
