By Jeanna Bryner, Live
Science Managing Editor | March 23, 2018 02:34pm ET
An elephant in India seems to
have a smoking habit. Conservation scientists spotted the pachyderm hoisting
chunks of ashen wood into its mouth and then blowing out puffs of smoke.
"I believe the elephant may
have been trying to ingest wood charcoal," Varun Goswami, Wildlife
Conservation Society's (WCS) India program scientist and an elephant biologist,
said in a statement. "She appeared to be picking up pieces from the forest
floor, blowing away the ash that came along with it, and consuming the
rest."
Goswami, an elephant biologist,
and his team came across what they are calling the "smoke-breathing"
elephant in Nagarahole National Park while checking their "hidden"
cameras (also called camera
traps) as part of a study of tigers and their prey.
During their forest trek, they
saw the elephant standing in a "burnt patch" of the woods. "In India,
the Forest Department burns fire lines to create fire breaks that can help
control forest fires," Vinay Kumar, assistant director of WCS-India, told
Live Science. "And this effort leaves behind wood charcoal on the forest
floor."
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