An elephant surprise smoking intrigues scientists
Xavier Demeersman Journalist
A female elephant was filmed spewing smoke in Nagarahole National Park, India. But what can the elephant smoke? And why does this behavior?
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An elephant who smokes? This may come as a surprise, but to his astonishment Vinay Kumar was able to see it in the Nagarahole National Park in southwestern India. Working for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Vinay Kumar and some of his colleagues checked the various photographic traps installed in this reserve where we can meet tigers , bears and therefore Asian elephants in the state wild.
Suddenly, an elephant appeared in the distance, spitting out what looks like smoke. It was not a hallucination - no pink elephants - as can be seen on the video below. The pachyderm seizes something on the ground with its trunk, puts it in its mouth and immediately expels a greyish cloud.
The elephant who smokes. © Wildlife Conservation Society , Youtube
Self-medication: a plausible explanation for this elephantine vaping
The biologists who saw these images said they were initially taken aback by such behavior. They are not used to seeing something as such. But Dr. Varun Goswami, specialist elephant at WCS, has a little idea about it.
For him, what seems rare here could very well be usual. "I think the elephant may have tried to ingest charcoal . She seems to pick up pieces on the forest floor, blow the ashes that go with it and consume the rest, " he said.
But then why eat charcoal? To cure themselves, think the researchers, like red colobus monkeys on the island of Zanzibar who, they, like to consume a little coal every day. This would be a form of self-medication, especially for absorbing toxins . And it "can also serve as a laxative, doubling its usefulness for animals that consume it after forest fires, lightning or controlled fires" wrote the WCS in a statement . A smoking elephant may not be exceptional ...
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