Female Elephant inspecting a tree

[Bibhav Behera]

Saw this behaviour in Kabini on the 24th of Feb. We were just entering Route A and glanced upon this female in the bushes. We stopped our safari vehicle and waited for it to come out. It slowly came out and crossed the road in front of us. It then went to this particular tree and started feeling the bark repeatedly. I couldn't tell if it was trying to smell a scent mark but it was definitely intrigued by the tree somehow. Can anyone shed some light on this behaviour?

Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS USM
SS 1/200
f/4
ISO 1600

Full frame Image. Comments and critiques welcome.

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Name of the tree or the image of the leaves would have been very useful.

' Elephant likes the bark of the following trees, in particular:
1. Kydia calycina: Hindi: Bharanga, Pulia, Bengali: Pola, Oriya:Bankopasia[possibly most,entire tree may be stripped of bark]
2.Grewia tiliaefolia: Hindi: Dhamani, Bengali: Dhamin
3.Teak: Bengali: Segun
The bark is skillfully stripped and eaten; it is not the dry bark is eaten; but the bark that is sappy, especially bark of saplings.'

I find a portion of the tree has already been stripped of the bark and clearly eaten by some elephant(s) (from the lower edges of the bark stripped). The elephant may be trying to sense how many days back this has happened, whether by other herd etc. to avoid any remotely possible interference before stripping and eating, in my view. Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

Indebtedness: '......' from writings of M. Krishnan; partially modified by me.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Elephants have got a keen sense of smell and can identify and relate with other elephants through smell. The bark has been previously stripped by other elephants. I guess when it came out of the bush, it noticed this tree and was trying to understand who else had passed through this place and when. I won't be surprised if animals of other species too come to this tree and sniff. Trees where predators have scent marked are also sniffed by herbivores.

The elephant appears to be close to your vehicle. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Mrudul Godbole]

Interesting behaviour. Good details. How were the sightings in Kabini? Any tiger or leopard sighting? Thanks for sharing.