Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1879 — Tool-Making Elephants, [ARTICLE]

Tool-Making Elephants,

The Duke of Argyll in his “ Reign of Law” was, I think, the first who promulgated the dictum that man is the only tool-making animal. As far as I can ascertain, this assertion is admitted by developmentists, yet it is undoubtedly true that the Indian elephant makes two implements, or forms and alters certain things so as to adapt them specially to fulfill definite purposes, for which, unaltered, they would not be suitable.One evening, soon after my arrival in Eastern Asarn, and while the five elephants were as Usual being fed opposite the Bungalow, I observed a young and lately caught one step up to a bamboostake fence and quietly pull one of tho stakes up. Placing it under foot, it broke a piece off with the trunk, and after lifting it to its mouth threw it away. It repeated this twice or thrice, and then drew another stake and began again. Seeing that the bamboo was old and dry, 1 asked the reason of this, and was told to wait and see what it would do. At last it seemed to get a piece that suited, and, holding it in the trunk firmly, and stepping the left foreleg weU forward, passed the piece of bamboo under the armpit, so to speak, and began to scratch with some force. My surprise reached its climax when I saw a large elephant leech fall on the ground, quite six inches long and thick as one’s linger, and which, from its position, could not easily be detached without this scraper, or scratch, which was deliberately made by the elephant. I subsequently found that it was a common occurrence. Leech-scrapers are used by every elephant daily. On another occasion, when traveling at a time of year when the large flies are so tormenting to .an elephant, I noticed that the one I rode had no fan or wisp to beat them off with. The mahout, at my order, slackened pace and allowed her to go to the side of the road, where for some moments she moved along rummaging the smaller jungle on the bank. At last she came to a cluster of young shoots well branched, and, after feeling among them, and selecting one, raised her trunk and neatly stripped down the stem, taking ofl all the lower branches and leaving a fine bunch on top. She deliberately cleaned it down several times, and then, laying hold at the lower end, broke off a beautiful fan or switch about five feet long, handle included. With this she kept the flies at bay as we went along, flapping them off on each side every now and then. Say what we may, these aro both really bona fide implements, each intelligently made for a definite purpose. S. E. Peel, in Nature.