Yes—elephants have been documented using sticks and branches as tools, especially for scratching and deterring flies, and sometimes altering a branch by breaking it or stripping leaves. But that ability is goal-dependent: in a controlled 2011 food-retrieval experiment, three Asian elephants did not use supplied sticks to reach bait. One male, Kandula, solved the problem by moving a large cube beneath the food and standing on it. The contrast shows why “elephants use sticks” is accurate but incomplete: an object that works for body care may not be the best solution for a task that requires reaching food.
What makes an elephant’s stick use a tool?
In animal-behavior research, tool use generally means manipulating an external object to achieve a practical goal. The object may be used as found, or altered first. For elephants, the documented examples include holding a stick against the body, changing a branch’s shape, moving a platform, and directing a hose. These behaviors are best understood by asking four questions: What was the elephant trying to do? Which object did it choose? Did it modify that object? And was the behavior observed spontaneously or elicited by an experiment?
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Those distinctions matter because “tool use” is not one all-purpose skill. A behavior can be reliable in one setting and absent in another without the observations contradicting each other. An elephant may select a branch for an awkward itch yet ignore a stick when food is suspended overhead.
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Scratching hard-to-reach skin
Reports from wild and captive African and Asian elephants describe elephants using sticks to scratch parts of the body that the trunk, tail or feet cannot comfortably reach. The stick extends the animal’s reach and provides a firm edge or point of contact. This is a practical body-care action rather than a demonstration staged by a researcher. The 1993 review by Chevalier-Skolnikoff and Liska assembled such observations and discussed tool use in both wild and captive elephants (Animal Behaviour, 1993).
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Fending off flies and other irritants
Sticks and leafy branches have also been reported as implements for swatting or brushing away flies. The same review proposed that tool use could help very large, relatively furless tropical mammals cope with ectoparasites and with heat management. Those are the authors’ functional hypotheses, not measurements showing that every stick-use event has a thermoregulatory purpose (Chevalier-Skolnikoff and Liska, 1993).
Changing the branch before using it
Some observations describe elephants breaking a branch or removing leaves before using it. Altering the object can make it lighter, less obstructed or better suited to the contact point on the body. This is important evidence because the elephant is not merely carrying a found object; it is adjusting the object to fit a task. Reports of branch modification and means–end behavior in Asian elephants are discussed in “Evidence of means–end behavior in Asian elephants” (Animal Cognition, 2008) and the broader 1993 review.
These observations establish that elephants can use and sometimes modify sticks in practical contexts. They do not establish how often the behavior occurs across elephant populations, whether every individual learns it, or whether an elephant will transfer the same strategy to an unfamiliar problem.
What happened when researchers tested sticks for getting food?
Foerder and colleagues tested three Asian elephants at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in a 2011 study. The setup placed bait out of reach and supplied sticks that could, in principle, have been used to pull or reach toward it. None of the three elephants used a stick to obtain the food in the described task (Foerder et al., “Insightful Problem Solving in an Asian Elephant,” PLOS ONE, 2011).
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The negative stick result is easy to misread. It does not show that the earlier scratching and fly-defense observations were false. Those earlier behaviors had different goals and arose in everyday contexts. The experiment asked the elephants to solve a particular food-access problem under controlled conditions, so it tested whether a supplied stick was useful for that problem—not whether elephants possess a general “stick tool” reflex.
The task, in practical terms
- Food was positioned above the elephant’s immediate reach.
- Sticks were available as possible reaching implements.
- The three elephants did not use those sticks to retrieve the bait.
- One seven-year-old male, Kandula, moved a large plastic cube beneath the baited branch and stood on the cube to reach the food.
The Smithsonian’s account of the study describes the same contrast between the supplied sticks and Kandula’s platform solution (Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, 2011).
Why might a trunk-held stick be a poor choice for this food task?
Foerder and colleagues proposed a task-specific explanation. Holding a stick can make the trunk tip curl around or alongside the object. That configuration may interfere with the tactile and olfactory feedback the elephant uses while locating food. If the trunk’s sensory information becomes less useful when a stick is in the way, reaching directly with the trunk—or changing the elephant’s height with a platform—could be more effective than extending the trunk with a rod.
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This is a proposed explanation, not a settled account of elephant cognition. It should not be converted into a rule that elephants cannot use sticks for food, nor into an excuse for every failure in a tool-use experiment. The result tells us that this particular stick-and-bait arrangement did not elicit stick use from the three tested elephants. Different object shapes, food positions or training histories could produce different behavior.
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Kandula’s cube solution was broader than one successful reach
Kandula’s behavior was distinctive within the small study. After moving the large cube beneath the overhead food, he used the same basic method in further trials to reach other items and to retrieve the cube when it had been placed in different locations. When the cube was unavailable, he generalized the approach to other objects and attempted to stack smaller objects to gain height (Foerder et al., 2011).
That sequence suggests flexible problem solving: the relevant feature was not “this exact cube,” but an object that could be positioned under the target and support the elephant. The authors described the behavior as insightful problem solving while also noting that the underlying cognitive process remained an open question. A successful solution by one animal is evidence of that individual’s capacity in that setting, not proof that all elephants reason in the same way or would independently discover the method.
Why the sample size changes the conclusion
Only three elephants took part in the 2011 experiment, and only one demonstrated the reported cube strategy. That design can reveal possibilities, but it cannot provide a population-wide rate of stick use, platform use or insight. Age, prior experience, motivation, social learning and differences in the apparatus could all affect an individual response. The safest conclusion is narrow: among these three elephants, sticks were not used for the tested food-retrieval task, while Kandula showed a repeatable platform-based solution.
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Hoses used during showering
A 2024 Current Biology study documented Asian elephants using and handling water hoses during showering. The hose behavior is a separate example from branch and stick use: the object delivers water, and the elephants manipulate it as part of bathing rather than scratching or reaching for overhead food. The study reported marked individual differences in how the elephants handled the hose (Urban et al., “Water-hose tool use and showering behavior by Asian elephants,” Current Biology, 2024).
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Social interference during hose use
The observations included an interaction in which Anchali disrupted Mary’s shower by clamping the hose. That detail matters because tool behavior can be embedded in social relationships, not just in a solitary problem-solving trial. It also cautions against treating “hose use” as a single standardized action: individuals may hold, direct, share or obstruct the same object in different ways.
What the documented cases show—and what they do not
| Case | Goal | Object and modification | Setting and individuals | What was observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stick or branch use | Scratching and deterring flies; body-care functions | Sticks; some branches broken or stripped of leaves | Reports from wild and captive African and Asian elephants; number of individuals not established in the cited review | Practical use, sometimes with object modification |
| 2011 food-retrieval experiment | Reach bait placed out of trunk reach | Provided sticks; no successful stick retrieval by the three tested elephants | Controlled study at Smithsonian National Zoological Park; three Asian elephants | No stick use in the described task |
| Kandula’s platform behavior | Reach an overhead baited branch and other targets | Large plastic cube moved under the target; later other objects and attempted stacks | One seven-year-old male within the 2011 study | Repeated platform solution and generalization across objects and locations |
| 2024 hose behavior | Showering and directing water | Water hose manipulated during bathing | Asian elephants; the report noted individual differences | Hose handling, including an interaction in which Anchali clamped Mary’s hose |
The table’s uneven sample sizes are part of the evidence, not a minor footnote. Everyday reports can show a behavior’s practical context but may not control what objects were available or how often an action occurred. A controlled experiment can specify the goal and apparatus but may make an object unnatural or inconvenient. Combining both kinds of evidence gives a more accurate picture than asking whether elephants “can” or “cannot” use sticks in the abstract.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Does this prove elephants think like humans?
No. The cases demonstrate behavioral flexibility and object manipulation, but they do not establish human-like reasoning. Kandula’s cube solution is compatible with insightful problem solving, yet the study did not identify the exact mental process that produced it. The authors left open questions about whether the elephant formed an abstract plan, learned through trial and error, or used another combination of perception, memory and action.
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How to interpret a claim that “elephants use sticks like tools”
- Keep the goal attached to the claim. Say “sticks used for scratching or fly defense” rather than implying that every elephant uses a stick for any problem.
- Identify whether the object was modified. Breaking a branch or removing leaves indicates adjustment to the task, but it does not by itself reveal the elephant’s planning process.
- Separate spontaneous behavior from elicited performance. Wild or captive observations and a controlled bait experiment answer different questions.
- Report the sample honestly. The 2011 result involved three elephants, with the cube solution demonstrated by one male; it is not a prevalence estimate.
- Treat explanations as hypotheses when the study does. Possible interference with trunk sensory feedback helps interpret the stick result but is not a universal law.
- Include non-stick tools. The 2024 hose study shows that elephant tool behavior extends to water handling and can vary sharply between individuals.
What researchers still need to learn
Future work could test more elephants across ages, sexes, facilities and wild settings while keeping the target goal clear. Researchers could vary stick length, thickness, flexibility and surface, then compare those objects with platforms or other reach-extending solutions. Trials that measure prior experience would help distinguish spontaneous innovation from learned routines. Repeated tests could also show whether an elephant transfers a method to a genuinely new problem or merely repeats a familiar movement.
For body-care behaviors, systematic observation would help determine when elephants choose sticks, how they select or alter branches, and whether choices change with flies, skin irritation, temperature or access to shade and water. For hose use, documenting who controls the hose, how individuals respond to interruptions and whether techniques spread socially could clarify the relationship between tool manipulation and group life. Until such data exist, the strongest evidence-based statement remains specific: elephants do use sticks and other objects as tools, but the tool, goal and individual determine what they actually do.
Bottom line
Elephants’ stick use is real, especially in scratching, fly defense and modified-branch behavior. The 2011 experiment shows why that fact should not be overgeneralized: three elephants did not use sticks to reach bait, while Kandula solved the same challenge with a movable cube and later generalized the platform idea. Alongside the 2024 hose observations, these cases portray elephants as flexible object users whose solutions depend on sensory demands, task design and individual experience.
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