Watch how an elephant peels a banana with its trunk

An elephant at a German zoo likes to peel her banana with her trunk — a trick so unusual that she's become the subject of a scientific study.You could say researchers "went bananas" over Pang Pha at the Berlin Zoo. "Yeah, first of all, she does it amazingly fast," said Michael Brecht, a neurobiology professor at Humboldt University. Brecht was among a group of researchers so impressed by the elephant's ability that they wrote a paper on it. And Pang Pha has taste — so don't try to hand her an overripe brown banana. Within seconds, she'd toss it away. When it comes to underripe bananas, she swallows them whole, which is how most elephants consume bananas.But if you give Pang Pha the perfect brown-speckled banana, she uses a "break and shake" technique — she breaks it, picks up a piece and shakes it, detaching the fleshy inside. When that part falls, she picks it up and eats it.Brecht said Pang Pha's trick may have influenced her. As a young elephant, she was handraised by a keeper. "He always fed her peeled bananas," Brecht said. And Pang Pha isn't alone. Mara at Brazil's Global Sanctuary not only peels her bananas, but she hands the leftover peel back. When Pang Pha is eating with a group, she reverts to eating bananas whole so other elephants don't beat her to them. Watch the video above to learn more about Pang Pha.