Rescued elephant at Bannerghatta Biological Park uses toothbrush to scratch his mouth

The story of humans using tools to accomplish their daily chores dates back to pre-historic times. But is the trend common among animal kingdom as well? Even as debates and researches are under progress on behavioural aspects of animals, officials at the Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP) were in surprise when ‘Sundar’ a 20-year-old rescued elephant often resorts to using of ‘tools’ to carry out a few tasks.

Observing the elephant since 2014, the officials at BBP stumbled upon this characteristic of Sundar which otherwise was not seen among 23 other elephants at Bannerghatta. Chief Conservator of Forests and Executive Director of BBP Vanashree Vipin Singh told DH that just like humans, the other animals too have a high level of cognition.

“It is normal for elephants to rub their body against a tree trunk or branches to dust off and chase away mites. But in Sundar’s case, he uses a piece of twig like a toothbrush to scratch his mouth and earbuds to scratch his ear. Similarly, his companion Menaka was also seen exhibiting the same behaviour by scratching under her neck and belly area using a twig,” Vanashree explained.

Amla Anil, Education Officer at BBP explained, “Use of tools by elephants is not unique but the level of complexity varies with individuals. A previous study by Hart and others in 2001 had demonstrated how elephants use and modify branches to repel flies in Rajiv Gandhi National Park at Nagarahole, indicating that the cerebral cortex in the brain and body ratio is greater than that of any primate species. In Sundar’s case, we have been seeing this for almost two months now.”

“Elephants, in terms of cognitive ability for manufacture and use of tools, are equivalent to great apes such as chimpanzees and orangutans. Even other species like crows and a few other birds, dolphins, octopus and monkeys have also exhibited the ability to use tools to solve complex problems,” explained yet another staffer at BBP.

Suresh, a supervisor of elephants at BBP said, “Sundar was rescued by the PETA way back in 2014 from a temple in Maharashtra and rehabilitated at Bannerghatta. But it is only in recent times that he has been using tools often to perform some tasks.”