The Dhaka Times Desk A 'smoking' wild elephant in India has scientists baffled. A 101 second video is available on YouTube. Watch that video.
![‘ধূমপায়ী’ বন্য হাতিকে নিয়ে বিজ্ঞানীদের বিস্ময়! [ভিডিও] 1](https://thedhakatimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/smoker-elephants-and-Scientists-750x430.jpg "'Smoking' wild elephant scientists wonder! [Video] 1")
The world has started a discussion about this smoking elephant. A 101 second video is available on YouTube. It shows that the elephant's mouth is really puffing out.
Meanwhile, the Wildlife Conservation Society of India said in a statement that the video showed the wild elephant doing something that no elephant has ever been seen doing before.
This kind of elephant behavior has surprised wildlife researchers. Vinay Kumar, a scientist from the Wildlife Conservation Society of India, came across the sight of smoking when he was working in the Nagarhole forest in Karnataka state. He videotaped the elephant.
Cameras were installed in the forest to collect footage of tiger movements and behaviour. Kumar saw the elephant nearby in the morning and took a video of it. In which it appears that someone had set fire to the forest. After it went out, the coals were still burning.
Vinay Kumar said, the elephant seemed to be swallowing the hot coal. The elephant was humming and releasing a lot of ash and smoke. It looked like he was smoking.
Although this video was taken in April 2016, according to a BBC news report. But that video has just been released. Kumar said, he did not understand the importance of this incident. Researchers can discover many things. However, the wildlife conservation society of India said that such behavior of elephants has never been observed before by human eyes. Scientists say they are still not entirely sure why the elephant was doing this.
Biologist Varun Goswami has been researching elephants for a long time. He said, "We know that charcoal has benefits in controlling toxins produced in the body." Maybe that's why the elephant is attracted to it. Moreover, charcoal also helps in softening the stool. Still, scientists are trying to find an explanation for this behavior of the female elephant.
Watch the video
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