Footage of an Asian elephant “smoking” in a forest in southern India has baffled wildlife experts, who say the behaviour has never before been observed.
Vinay Kumar, a scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) India programme, captured the puffing pachyderm while visiting camera traps in the Nagarahole national park in Karnataka state.
The 48-second video shows the elephant picking up something with its trunk and putting it in its mouth, then blowing out a gust of smoke.
Biologists from the WCS said the footage, shot in April 2016 but only recently posted online, was “the first known video documentation of a wild elephant exhibiting such behaviour, and has scientists and experts puzzled.”
He said charcoal had toxin-binding properties that could have medicinal value for the animals.
Charcoal is also a laxative and is plentiful in forests after wildfires, lightning strikes or controlled burns.
Though elephants have not previously been observed blowing ash, animal self-medication – zoopharmacognosy – is relatively common, according to website.
It cites studies that observed red colobus monkeys in Zanzibar eating charcoal to counteract toxic...
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