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ELEPHANTS may be as clever as great apes—at least when it comes to
making and using tools. Benjamin Hart and colleagues from the University of
California, Davis, and Nagarhole National Park in India have seen wild Indian
elephants using tree branches to shoo away biting flies. When given a branch
that is too long or bushy to work effectively, they hold the branch with their
front feet and tear away the extra foliage with their trunks (Animal
Behaviour, vol 62, p 839). This ability to manipulate and adapt tools
suggests they understand the task as opposed to just following a procedure that
leads to a goal.