TOOL USE BY WILD AND CAPTIVE ELEPHANTS

This study describes the tool-use potentials of captive African and Asian elephants, Loxodonta africana and Elephus maximus, respectively, and wild African elephants and explores the ecological and evolutionary significance of this behaviour. Comparison of the types, diversity and frequency of tool use by captive and wild elephants with other known tool-using mammals is offered as a means for evaluating the evolutionary significance of tool-using behaviour. Several hypotheses concerning the origin and evolutionary significance of tool use are examined, and it is proposed that in elephants, tool use may serve as adaptations enabling these furless, large-bodied tropical land mammals to cope with ectoparasites and thermoregulation. © 1993 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. All rights reserved.