Friday, August 14, 2009

Elephant teaches herself the harmonica

Seriously. What's amazing about this story is that the elephant in question, an English zoo inhabitant named Five, was not taught to play an instrument by humans in order to amuse the visitors. Someone left a harmonica within trunk range, and Five was toying with it and realized it made interesting noises. She kept experimenting on it and now does what the keepers, at least, call playing a tune.
COMMENT: This story, if it's accurate and not overhyped, raises some fascinating questions about what an elephant finds interesting and how "lower" mammals react to musical tones.

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