Asian elephants in southern India have been spotted holding twigs with their trunks and using them to scratch their ears and mouths.

Footage filmed on July 24 shows the animals, named Sunder and Menaka, using the twigs to scratch places on their faces they can't quite reach.

Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP) is home to 23 Asian elephants, mainly captive-born but some rescued from temples. Sunder, a 20-year-old elephant, was rescued from a temple in Kolhapur, Maharashtra and housed in BBP since 2014.

Menaka is seen using a similar technique but scratching her belly and neck using a small twig.

Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus) at Bannerghatta Biological Park uses Tool in southern India.

Taking and using an object to solve problems is called Tool use.

Humans use tools for majority of the daily activities but have other animals adapted to use tools to solve problems?

Yes, just like humans, other animals also have a high level of cognition. A piece of twig may not be of any importance to us but not for our rescued elephant, Sunder!!

Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP) is home to 23 Asian Elephants, mainly captive born but some rescued from temples. Sunder, a 20 year old elephant, was rescued from a temple in Kolhapur, Maharashtra and housed in BBP since 2014.

Recently, he was seen using a piece of twig to scratch specific areas in his ear and mouth, which was not possible otherwise with his trunk or by just rubbing himself against a tree.
His fellow elephant, Menaka, was also seen performing the same behavior by scratching under her neck and belly area with a twig!!

Tool use in elephants is not unique but the level of complexity varies with individuals. A study by Hart, et al. in 2001 shows how elephants use and modify branches to repel flies in Nagarhole National Park indicating that the cerebral cortex in the brain and body ratio is greater than that of any primate species.

Hence, elephants are equivalent to great apes, such as chimpanzees and orangutans in terms of *cognitive ability for tool use* and manufacture. Other species such as crows and other birds, dolphins, monkeys and octopus also have been known to use tools to solve complex situations.

This note is issued for general information and creating awareness among people about animal behaviour.