The Elephant Guide
The elephant trunk is an extremely useful tool that elephants use for a variety of purposes. Elephants are one of the few animals in the world to have evolved specialized appendages, and their trunks are no exception.
Trunks can be used as weapons, trumpets, snorkels, or scoops to pick up various things from the ground. The trunk has over 100,000 muscles in it!
There are some Elephants behaviors that can be said to be natural or stereotypical, but then there are some that are considered to be abnormal. The swaying of an Elephant is something that is often linked to distress, so if you see an Elephant swaying then it’s likely that something is wrong.
Other abnormal behaviors in Elephants include:
However, it has also been noted that some captive elephants sway due to an instinctual need to keep balance. Swaying can also be a sign of physical discomfort, such as when an elephant is experiencing joint pain.
Trunk-in-air behaviour is another sign of distress in elephants. This is when an elephant lifts its trunk up in the air and waves it around, often while making a trumpeting sound.
This behaviour is usually only seen when an elephant is severely distressed or agitated.
For an elephant, their huge ears are crucial to their survival beyond only hearing.
The large size of the elephant ears allows them to regulate their body temperature, mainly to drop their body temperature during hot days.
Blood vessels in the ear are close to the surface, so when they need to cool down, they flap their ears to create airflow and release heat.
Read on to find out more reasons why the Elephants have such big ears as well as differences in ear size between the different species of Elephants.
Here you’ll find some amazing answers to all your burning questions about this fantastic animal.