Asian elephants to smoke in India are discovered

Asian elephant which is "smoking" in southern Indian forest has been discovered and its appearance is contained in the camera. There are no reports of Asian elephants acting like this in the past and it is surprising the researchers.

Why This Elephant in India Is Blowing Smoke | Smart News | Smithsonian
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-elephant-india-blowing-smoke-180968592/

Elephant 'smoking' footage baffles experts | Science | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/mar/27/elephant-smoking-footage-baffles-experts-india

Asian elephant who is smoking,Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)Research team of Vinai Kumar et al., Scientist of the Indian program in India, is located in Karnataka State, IndiaNagara Hall National ParkIt was discovered when visiting. You can check the appearance of Asian elephants actually smoking in the following movie.

Elephant seen 'smoking' in southern India - YouTube


The Asian elephant found by Mr. Kumar and others catch the ground with his nose.


Grab something like white powder with your nose ......


It is included in the mouth.


At the next moment, I spit out the white smoke from the mouth.


In the movie, this elephant is doing the same action 3 times, it does not happen to act like smoking by chance, it is thought that it is done intentionally. According to WCS biologist Varun Goswami, it is unknown what this elephant intends to do this behavior, but while the elephant's behavior like this is a charcoal is like white powder contained in his mouth It is that. And Mr. Goswami says "Charcoal has the property of binding toxins and it has effect as a laxative, elephants may be eating charcoal in expectation of medicinal-like action." I will.

Although Asian elephant has smoked in the past, it has not been confirmed so far, but drug ingestion using natural substances seems to be common among animals. For example,Zanzibar Red CobbsI know that I eat charcoal to combat the toxins contained in food.

In the example other than charcoal,Beni MacawonkoIs known to eat clay to help digestion, and it is also known that many other animals ingest natural substances as drugs.

The charcoal which Asian elephant had included in the movie this time in the movie said that the Indian forestry bureau had eaten what was in a place artificially burned a part of the forest to prevent large scale forest fires It is that. However, charcoal is not an uncommon thing in nature, it can be easily obtained in places where forest fires and lightning strikes occurred. For this reason, it is thought that it is not a special action that only Asian elephant who was in Nagara Hall National Park is doing.