Elephants at Bannerghatta spotted using twigs to scratch themselves

Mysuru: Picking up an elongated object, with a slightly sharp edge to extricate from fine invisible spaces particularly irritating objects is something that comes instinctively to us, and it is not an uncommon practice among some apes either. But the sight of two elephants adopting a similar tactic to relieve themselves of irritation using twigs left spectators at the Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP) in Bengaluru staring in amused awe. A 20-year-old tusker Sunder, and a female elephant Menaka, have been spotted multiple times using twigs to scratch their bodies with the aid of their trunks.
BBP executive director Vanashri Vipin Singh said that employing an external object for one’s comfort was a phenomenon called ‘tool use’.
“Human beings use tools for majority of their daily activities but to what extent have other animals managed to master this? Like humans, other animals too boast cognitive ability of a high order. A twig may not matter much to us, but that is not the case with a rescued elephant at Bannerghatta,” Vanashri said.
Bannerghatta is home to 23 Asian elephants, most of which were born in captivity, while some were rescued from temples. Sunder belongs to the latter group, rescued from a temple in Kolhapur in Maharashtra. He has been a resident of Bannerghatta since 2014. “We spotted him using a twig to scratch his ear and mouth, reaching which was proving difficult with his trunk. Menaka too was seen scratching her neck and belly with a twig,” Vanashri added.
Although ‘tool use’ was not uncommon among elephants, the complexity of its employment varied between individual specimens, said Vanashri, citing a 2001 study that described the use of tree branches by elephants to ward off flies – observed at the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve.
In addition to elephants and apes, crows, a few other birds, dolphins and octopus have also been seen to employ tools in situations they find tricky.