An adult African elephant can store 12 liters of water in its trunk! They commonly suck up water using their trunk and spray it over their bodies to helps them stay cool in hot environments. The African elephant trunk and Asian elephant trunk are actually designed slightly differently. Asian elephants have more trunk muscles than African elephants, which helps them to do more complex things.
Still not sure of the differences between an African and Asian Elephant? The elephant trunk is a combination of the nose and upper lip of its mouth, technically a proboscis. The elephant trunk acts like both a mouth and a nose. It helps them to do a variety of things like gripping, drinking, smelling, and showing love. The elephant trunk is a specially adapted body part used for a wide range of purposes. These include breathing, eating, gripping, drinking, smelling, rubbing, and more. An elephant trunk is prehensile and works by the precise movements of the muscles inside it.
It is controlled by these muscles, and the proboscis nerve, which helps them move their trunk whichever way they want. It has a little amount of fat but is primarily a muscular organ. There are close to 40, muscles in an elephant trunk! Did any of this surprise you, or any relevant elephant trunk facts you think we should add? Please do join in using the comments section below! Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab.
After logging in you can close it and return to this page. Elephant trunk close up. Diagram of the inside of an elephant trunk. Uses of the elephant trunk In his renowned paper Understanding proboscidean evolution J. An elephant using its trunk to snorkel. The four large external muscles running along the top, side and bottom of the trunk control the main movements of the trunk i.
The smaller internal muscles are responsible for finer movements and are based on a network of hundreds of thousands of fascicles. The fascicles are arrangements running all along the trunk like bicycle spokes and give the trunk its extraordinary flexibility. Just like the human tongue, the elephant is able to taste the air thanks to millions of receptor cells in their upper nasal cavity.
They can smell just as well as any bloodhound and are able to detect water from 19km away. Once found, the elephant can draw up to 8 litres of that water into their nasal passages at a time. This is then sprayed into the mouth. Elephants cannot drink through their noses and would choke if they tried. If a river crossing is in order, the trunk comes to the rescue once again. Held high above the surface of the water, the trunk is used like a snorkel so the elephant can breathe even when its entire body is submerged.
Food time is a breeze when you have two highly tactile fingers to pick leaves from the highest branches, snap off twigs or pull up grass, and self-defence is no problem either with a long muscular club at your disposal. Watch a while the next time you come across some elephants on safari to see the ways in which they use this amazing appendage in almost every aspect of their lives.
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Category: Safari But how does this incredible accessory work? Elephants coming down to drink - Toby Pheasant. The dexterity of an elephant's trunk is incredible. Elephants frolicking in the Okavango Delta. An elephant mother and her calf - Toby Pheasant. Thanks for reading, The Bonamy Travel Team. Related articles. View all. How to work out which way an elephant is walking from its tracks Private safari guide Toby Pheasant explains how to read elephant trac Our Purpose.
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