5 Curiosities About The Elephant’s Trunk
If you were asked what, in your opinion, is the strangest part of the largest land animal that exists, which would you say? His giant ears? His known intelligence? The sharp fangs? Or the long trunk ?
In this article we will tell you some curiosities about the elephant’s trunk , the most sensitive part of the body of this immense mammal.
The multifunctionality of the elephant’s trunk
The elephant’s trunk is the junction of the nose with the upper lip. Through it, this animal sniffs, breathes, cleans and refreshes itself, makes sounds and grabs objects.
Below we list some of the characteristics of this fundamental part of the body.
1-Flexibility and sensitivity
The elephant’s trunk has great sensitivity. It is an important exploratory organ, capable of distinguishing shapes and colors. Furthermore, it is extremely flexible, thanks to its conformation given by six muscle groups divided into over 100,000 muscle units.
Unfortunately, however, the great sensitivity of the elephant’s trunk is exploited to their detriment when they are in captivity. In fact, humans strike the trunk to punish the animal or as a technique to train it, because they know that this is the area where the elephant feels the most pain.
2-Sound and infrasound emitter
The proboscis of this mammal is also a tool for making sounds. Surely you have noticed the particular sound manifestations of this animal. They are called trumpets and, in general, the elephant uses them to express anger or fear.
But it is also capable of producing infrasounds, imperceptible to the human ear, which allow it to maintain contact with its fellows within a radius of over 10 kilometers. This communication technique is mainly used to lead the group, look for puppies or for mating.
3-Champion of smell
Having a developed trunk allows the elephant to have the best sense of smell in the animal kingdom. When he lifts it, since the nasal canal runs inside it, there is no doubt that he is hunting for odors, even if very far away.
In this way it is able to recognize predators and other types of threats. Furthermore, having a highly developed sense of smell helps him in the search for food, as well as being a very valuable ally of males in the search for females ready for mating.
The curiosity lies in the fact that these mammals usually “taste” the different smells. How? Inserting the trunk inside the mouth immediately after touching an object. In this way the smell reaches a small opening in the palate reaching the Jacobson’s organ.
4-Multi-purpose tool
The elephant’s trunk is also a multipurpose tool. For example, the elephant uses it to:
- Collect food from the ground or from heights of over 6 meters.
- Aspirate water, which he uses to quench his thirst or to wash his body.
- Collect sand and earth, which it then uses to create a cover on the body that protects it from heat, insects and the sun.
- Opening the way.
- Scratch your ears and eyes.
- Lift and throw heavy objects up to 4.5% of its weight.
- Threaten his enemies.
- To play.
5-Built-in Snorkeling
Did you know that elephants are also excellent swimmers? They push themselves with their paws which then move with intensity. In this way they are able to cover even great distances in the water and, in deep water, they are able to immerse themselves completely.
This is where the trunk comes into play, which they use just as if they were snorkeling . It seems that nature has endowed these immense animals with real diving tools.
