Elephant plays the harmonica at the Smithsonian National Zoo
This elephant can play the harmonica better than you.
According to the video's description, Shanthi, a 36-year-old Asian female elephant at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C., has been known to play instruments provided for her in her zoo environment at her own discretion without the coaxing of zoo trainers or keepers.
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"I think what's really amazing about the little ditties that Shanthi comes up with is musically, they really do have a beginning, a middle and an end," elephant keeper Debbie Flinkman says in the clip. "[The songs] have a repetitive part that might have some beat that you could actually follow to it and it has a big crescendo at the end and we all know there is going to be a crescendo. And, we wait and then we applaud and then we go back to work and it's just so enjoyable."
It's rare that you'd find Earth's largest land animal jamming without encouragement from trainers and keepers or with the added incentive of treats, which also makes it that much more incredible.
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"What I really like the visitors to know is that I don't make Shanthi play the harmonica," Flinkman said. "Although, sometimes in a training demonstration, I might hold a harmonica up and ask Shanthi to blow through it to show the public what she can do."
In order to facilitate Shanthi's musical habit, the keepers at the zoo affixed a harmonica to her training wall so that she can choose to play it whenever she wants, and as we see in the video, she often takes advantage of it.
In one such instance, keepers were bathing another elephant and heard Shanthi playing in a nearby stall and were able to capture it on camera. As you can see in the video, no one is persuading Shanthi to play and all she receives is a round of applause when she's done.
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In addition, it's not just the harmonica that Shanthi likes to play; she also likes to use her surroundings to fulfill her musical need.
"I think that Shanthi is musically inclined," Flinkman says. "When Shanthi interacts with her environment, her indoor stalls and her outside area, she likes to tap on things with the tip of her trunk, she likes to flap her ears against things that make noise, she likes to rub her leg up and down brushes and repeat that noise."
Adding, "I mean, if it's that important to our breed, these really intelligent animals ought to enjoy music."
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