An elephant that washes herself with a hose has fascinated researchers in Germany.

Footage shows the Asian elephant Mary bathing herself with a hose at the Berlin Zoo.

Senior researchers from Humboldt University of Berlin, including Michael Brecht and Lena Kaufmann, along with first study author Lea Urban, have provided new insights into elephant tool use.

Mary dubbed the 'queen of showering,' has demonstrated a remarkable ability to manipulate a hose to wash her entire body, even using a lasso-like swing to reach her back.

The team also observed fellow elephant Anchali, who seemed to interrupt Mary's bath time by trying to stop the water flow with her trunk.

The findings, published in the journal Current Biology, also raise intriguing questions about whether elephants in the wild display similar behaviours.

Prof Brecht said: 'Do elephants play tricks on each other in the wild? When I saw Anchali's kink and clamp for the first time, I broke out in laughter.

'So I wonder, does Anchali also think this is funny, or is she just being mean?'

The team is eager to investigate what this behavior in captive elephants might reveal about jumbos in their natural environments.