
Elephant 'smoking' footage baffles experts - Vigier
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/mar/27/elephant-smoking-footage-baffles-experts-india
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lovelearning
I don't see much value in trying to use logical speculation to generalize such
behaviors to an entire species.

Anybody who has observed animals and pets will have noticed how each and every
animal has its own personality, likes, dislikes and peculiarities. Just like
people, who, despite our airs, are just another species.

Some of my pets eat people food which my other pets don't even look at. Some
of them play with balls, while others don't. On YouTube, I follow a cool guy
who has a pure vegetarian pet cat getting along with many normal cats.

This particular elephant might have been simply curious about the smoke or
might have been playing with it for the heck of it.

They are individual peculiarities and I don't think any conclusion can be
drawn about the entire species from them.

~~~
nitrogen
_...a pure vegetarian pet cat..._

How does the cat obtain whatever missing nutrients cause most cats to be
obligate carnivores?

~~~
lovelearning
I'm not sure actually. In many videos, he offers it things like fish and
chicken and wet cat food but that cat doesn't touch them. It does eat some dry
kibbles - maybe that's enough? Now that I think about it, calling it "pure
vegetarian" was my mistake because it does eat those kibbles which probably
contain non-vegetarian nutrients.

~~~
icebraining
Yes, dry kibble certainly contains meat (fish, poultry or even red meat).

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hbarka
I think some are too eager to project human vice and behavior onto an animal.
It makes for a good story and we’re willing to delude ourselves, even
professional observers. The article even used the word “puffing” and
“smoking”—there was neither. It was clearly blowing the dust out before
ingesting the bituminous material. If it had been liquid it was blowing away
we’d read that it was having a swig and a swill of spirits. All it needs is a
smoking jacket. The authors are the ones smoking something.

~~~
extralego
I think you’ve identified the smoking elephant in the room.

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flamtap
I wonder if perhaps the elephant simply finds the outburst of smoke
entertaining?

~~~
m_fayer
Right on. From watching my pets, I know that when they're healthy, happy, and
bored - they will start doing lots of random shit "for the hell of it." Same
applies to humans, and often to apex predators. Perhaps we're too deep in our
bubbles of overwork and self-actualization to remember the entire concept of
free time and doing random shit just because.

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ThoAppelsin
According to this video [0], it is not something of carbon that the elephant
puffs, but a "puffball mushroom". I was very eager to believe in his words
when I watched that yesterday. It was because that the day before, I had
watched another video [1] of from that channel featuring something really
similar that he calls "earth star fungi" this time, at 1:35.

Leaving his words aside, it also is much more believable to me that an
elephant eats a puffing mushroom than charcoal.

[0] [https://youtu.be/V0Lzym6XjoQ](https://youtu.be/V0Lzym6XjoQ)

[1] [https://youtu.be/nyrIKtFZx3s?t=95](https://youtu.be/nyrIKtFZx3s?t=95)

~~~
jrlocke
This was my first thought as well. It appears the elephant isn't sucking as
much as chewing.

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tim_hutton
It's just a cloud of dust? From the thing that the elephant picked up off the
dusty ground?

~~~
randomerr
Dust clouds are usually an off-color from the decay of organic matter or
crushed rock. Since this is in a forest setting I would discount that it is
crushed rock. If the item was on fire I would think the elephant would spit it
out. My guess is mushroom spores or a chemical reaction with something growing
there. No matter what the elephant sure thought it was tasty.

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thawkins
It's likely it's using the ash or charcoal to self-treat a stomach problem,
animals are known to ingest non food substances to clear problems, charcoal,
chalk, dogs eat grass when suffering from gastric problems.

~~~
StavrosK
Wouldn't the elephants say the same when watching a human smoking? Besides,
swallowing charcoal and inhaling charcoal are completely different, I don't
know how much good the latter would do for the stomach.

~~~
thawkins
Remember the elephants trunk is it's hand, not just it's nose, it's clearly
putting something into its mouth after blowing off the ASH dust.
[http://www.besthealthmag.ca/best-you/health/stomach-pain-
rel...](http://www.besthealthmag.ca/best-you/health/stomach-pain-relieve-gas-
indigestion-and-belly-bloat-with-activated-charcoal/)

~~~
StavrosK
Actually yes, this makes more sense.

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tbabb
Looks like it's playing.

Reminds me of dolphin air rings[1].

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT-
fctr32pE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT-fctr32pE)

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gingernaut
Very interesting. I think it's unlikely that we are the only species that
ingests materials/chemicals that make us feel good, aside from providing any
nutritional value.

~~~
Monk_NT
Some bird species eat fermented berries to get drunk.
[https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/12/141203-drun...](https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/12/141203-drunk-
birds-animals-science-winter-global-warming/)

~~~
rectangletangle
Animal drunkenness is a well documented phenomena. Many species of monkeys and
apes will "recreationally drink," given the opportunity. Interestingly enough,
the rate of "alcoholism" among many simians is inline with that of humans.

(skip to 0:55) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIDJ-
sTuoO8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIDJ-sTuoO8)

~~~
thinkloop
Every kind of animal getting wasted together in the same area, why don't we
have a camera permanently pointed at this spot

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haihaibye
"Smoking I find the most ridiculous of all the varieties of human behavior and
practically the only one that is entirely against nature. Can you imagine a
cow or any animal taking a mouthful of smoldering straw then breathing in the
smoke and blowing it out through its nostrils?" \- Ian Flemming, Goldfinger.

~~~
Valmar
> "entirely against nature"

I guess I find his statement ridiculous, because it seems quite natural for
some to enjoy smoking, and others to not. It is therefore definitely not
"entirely against nature". It's merely that what happens in reality didn't
correlate with his beliefs.

Smoking tobacco was a routine cultural thing in the Americas before the
Europeans came along.

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zabil
I live nearby this national park and this time of the year forest fires create
a lot of ash.

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jnamaya
Have you ever seen a bat blowing up smoke? You'll find videos on YouTube from
people giving bats a smoke, but I once saw a bat smoking for real, he
intentionally looked for the cigarette to have another puff, it was hilarious!

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noetic_techy
"smoking" = blowing dry dirt from its mouth. I'm surprised guardian would use
such a click-bate title. I was hoping to see actual fire and smoke. They are
intelligent creatures. Probably just playing around.

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matt_the_bass
My dog will pick out bits of charcole from our burning fireplace. She appears
to love the taste and we have to actively keep her away when the fire is low.

We like to say that “she likes her bbq chips”

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konart
I'm pretty sure it's just ash from a campfire or something. It's often used
agains some parasites in the garden.

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matte_black
Couldn’t this behavior just be replicated again by giving an elephant some
kind of elephant cigarette and seeing what it does?

~~~
mc32
As far as I could tell, this wasn't about getting stimulated by the
release/ingestion of chemicals but rather involved zoopharmacognosy, given the
"smoke" was produced by expelling a cloud of ash.

I.e. it wasn't trying to get high for the sake of getting high but rather
trying to counteract the effects of pathogens.

~~~
mar77i
Just because the pathogens that make humans want to get high aren't always
merely chemical in nature, doesn't mean they're not pathogens either.

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jlebrech
I just think the elephant is just having fun. (i'm not an expert)

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truculation
Yes it could well be. And I for one don't set much store by 'experts',
especially where smoke is concerned:

[https://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/doctors-used-to-
literally-b...](https://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/doctors-used-to-literally-
blow-smoke-up-your-ass-with-18th-century-medical-treatment/)

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singularity2001
speculation: disinfecting mouth?

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neonnoodle
Uhhh he clearly wanted to look cool.

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Sommer
Feels like they should have titled it "One Pachyderm a Day"

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maxerickson
If animal milk is vegetarian then it doesn't mean anything.

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MereInterest
Typically, "vegetarian" means eating no meat, though animal products that do
not harm the animal, such as milk or honey, are allowed. You're thinking of
"vegan", which forbids the use of any animal products.

~~~
maxerickson
Yes I know what vegan means.

But in the context of a "vegetarian cat", animal milk is not vegetarian.

You could also be a (plant only) vegetarian and not a vegan if you, say,
didn't eat any animal product but loved leather boots. So there is something
to be said for the word meaning what it sounds like.

~~~
dec0dedab0de
_So there is something to be said for the word meaning what it sounds like._

Ideally yes, but English doesn't work that way. I dont know about other
languages, but I suspect any natural language will eventually develop these
types of inconsistencies.

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Kenji
_Footage of an Asian elephant “smoking” in a forest in southern India has
baffled wildlife experts, who say the behaviour has never before been
observed._

I wonder how many experts would be baffled simply by following around and
video taping one single human, finding behaviour "never before observed".

