How Much Water Does An Elephant Trunk Hold
For me elephants are some of the most magnificent and graceful creatures of the African bush. Their sheer size and unique adaptations are sure to depict your attention, their trunk in item.
An elephant's trunk is essentially a fusion of the olfactory organ and upper lip and its incredible versatility makes it perchance the near useful trunk part in the whole animal kingdom.
Did you know:
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Elephants have over 50 000 muscles in their trunk.
Despite no one knowing for certain exactly how many muscles are in the torso, the bottom line is that it'south a big number. Nigh estimates put it at between forty 000 and 100 000! Elephants trunks are one of the well-nigh circuitous organs in the whole brute kingdom. The number of muscles they contain is just staggering. To put it into context, the homo body contains but 639 muscles in total, and all muscles are supported by bones and tendons throughout to allow them to function properly, yet in that location is not a single os in the entire torso of an elephant. The torso is therefore most comparable to a humans natural language equally they both work in very similar ways.
Elephants trunks are incredibly dynamic and able to non only movement in a variety of directions but likewise able to do so with immense forcefulness and precision. What I find so remarkable is how the trunk is able to manouever in then many directions without any skeletal support. Information technology is able to practise this by means of tightly packed musculus fibres that go on its volume abiding through a variety of movements. Longitudinal, cantankerous-exclusive and lateral muscle arrangements permit the trunk to flex in literally any direction possible.
ii. Their trunk can concord roughly 10 litres of water.
The volume of water an elephant can suck up into its trunk is manifestly dependent on the size and age of the elephant (their trunk grows equally do they) merely a fully grown elephant trunk (which can itself weigh well upwards of 100kg!) is able to agree betwixt 8 and 10 of water at a time! Contrary to popular belief, elephants do non drink with their trunks; they suck water upwards into them and then spray it into their mouths. They also use the water to spray over themselves to cool off, and being able to spray up to x litres at a fourth dimension can only exist benign!
Elephant calves cannot use their trunks at first and have to learn how to command them. I have watched elephant calves bending right downwardly to put their mouths into the water to endeavor and drink, as they simply lack the trunk control to exist able to suck water upwards.
An elephant herd lines upward to drink from the Sand River. Photograph by James Tyrrell
iii. Elephants communicate extensively with their trunks.
An elephant'due south song repertoire is officially limited to four dissimilar sounds, but it's the different graduations in pitch, elapsing and book which enables them to express a broad range of emotional states and this is where the trunks comes into play. If yous have ever been on a safari and sat with a breeding herd of elephants you would've heard the depression rumbling sound resonating from the herd as the are feeding. This sounds doesn't emanate from the stomach, as was initially believed, but rather stems from the elephant's larynx. This is their principal form of altitude communication and a lot of the time these frequencies are below the homo hearing threshold (known as infrasound).
The simply fourth dimension an elephant uses but its body to audibly communicate is when you hear the very distinct trumpeting sound. This sound is produced by blowing through the nostrils hard enough to make the trunk resonate. Trumpeting is usually associated with excitement but can as well sound the alarm or for a cry for assist.
Besides the obvious audible communication, tactile communication plays an incredibly important office in elephant club, and the flexible and sensitive trunk is their primary means of touch.
Ii elephant cows bond through touch. Photograph by Londolozi Guest Judy Boch.
four.Their trunks can pick up an incredibly broad variety of things.
The dexterity of an elephant'due south torso is one of the most amazing things to detect. At the tip of the African elephant'southward trunk there are two almost finger-like appendages that deed similar opposable thumbs; these are what allow them to selection things up as small every bit marula fruits, or access the cambium of trees by grabbing small tendrils of bark and fierce them off.
With the trunk being so full of muscle information technology is tremendously strong, and logs weighing over 150kg tin exist picked upwardly and tossed aside with impunity. It has been reported that elephants can move logs weighing about a ton! Elephants in India accept been domesticated for thousands of years to be used in the logging industry, shifting very heavy tree trunks on a daily basis.
Certainly not the biggest branch this young elephant is capable of lifting, but one gets the idea. Photograph by James Tyrrell
An Asian elephant carries a large teak log nearly the village of Cochin in Kerala, Republic of india. The domestication and use of elephants in India is a tradition over 4,000 years old. Photograph past Robert Harding.
From the petty to the big, the trunk tin can handle all of information technology; pulling downward branches over 20 feet high or picking upward the tiniest morsels betwixt the nubbins.
Strength and a fragile touch. A bully combination in an elephant's trunk. Photograph by James Tyrrell.
5. An elephant'due south trunk is iv times ameliorate at smelling than a bloodhound.
Elephants possess a phenomenal sense of odour. The upper nasal cavities have chemical and olfactory sensors in the form of millions of receptor cells. So sensitive is an elephant'southward trunk that is more than capable than a bloodhound's olfactory organ and is said to be able to smell fresh h2o from almost 20 kilometres abroad. The nostrils are located at the tip of the trunk and function in breathing and smelling. The sense of aroma is in constant apply, with the trunk moving back and forth, detecting new scents and information.
For proper analysis, elephants may make concrete contact with the substance with the torso. Then the chemic information is dabbed on to the Jacobson's organ, a chemical—detection unit located in the soft tissue of the upper palate. The organ is attached to the oral/nasal cavities and functions primarily to detect the oestrus (reproductive) condition of a female.
An elephant sniffs the breeze at it approaches a waterhole. Photograph by Pete Thorpe
With its multi-functional role in an elephant'south 24-hour interval-to-day, the body is not only versatile and useful, it is almost indispensable. Although we have observed elephants at Londolozi that take lost their trunks – or at to the lowest degree a portion of them – and seem to be surviving adequately, these individuals invariably take a much harder time of it than the residual of their herd.
Although many factors combined ascertain the elephant's role in its environment, information technology is ultimately the body that makes them such a successful species.
About the Writer
Alumni Ranger
Guy worked as a ranger for Londolozi from 2017 until the end of 2021. He grew upwards in Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal. From a young age he visited the bush each holiday. It was during these early years that his passion and interest was ...
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How Much Water Does An Elephant Trunk Hold,
Source: https://blog.londolozi.com/2018/02/22/5-things-you-didnt-know-about-an-elephants-trunk/
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