The
respiratory system of the elephants has several unique features. However,
despite all the studies about elephants that have been made so far, there are
very few scientific publications regarding their respiratory system; for example, the African elephants are known to have more flexible trunks than the Asians, and the reason remains still unclear.
The trunk is
one of those unique structures; it consists of the nose and the upper lip, more
or less 80.000 muscles, 2 separated nostrils (or passages) and no bones.
Their trunks
are so important, that an elephant couldn´t survive with an amputated or hardly
damaged trunk. They are used not only for breathing, but they also have several
other functions like:
Soak organ: unlike many people might think, elephants
don´t drink with their trunks, but use them to soak up water and then blow it
into their mouths (up to 10 liters at once!).
“Body-care” organ: they use it to clean their eyes and ears, or to blow sand and mud over their bodies to clean themselves or to cool down, as a sun protection or as an insect repellent.
Tactile function: playing, fighting, laying it on other´s back as a dominance signal, or touching mom:
Original video: ACP000bfo0
Prehensile organ: The African elephant has two opposite prehensile finger-like appendages (“fingers”) at the tip of its trunk which are used to grab and/or manipulate objects and smaller items. The Asian elephant has only one finger at the end of its trunk:
As a “weapon”: rolling it to push a potential danger (for
example, other elephant or a safari car), they use it to throw objects against it, etc. When a chained Asian "working" male elephant is in musth, he would aggressively throw stones, sand, his own dung and food away as an expression of the frustration that arises from the lack of movement and the situation itself (high testosterone levels).
To threaten: by swinging it in the direction of an adversary, ears wide open and running
towards the potential danger. typically while blowing forcefully out through it.
Elephants are
very curious animals, and they use their trunks to satisfy their curiosity by
touching the object in particular with their trunk and then placing the trunk in their mouth. Like many other animals such as mice, rats, cattle, dogs, cats,
goats and pigs, elephants have a Jacobson´s organ (vomeronasal organ) in the
roof of their mouth. They transfer chemo sensory stimuli
by touching this organ with the trunk finger.
Curiosity: the elephant trunk is amazingly flexible and extremely strong at the same time: it can pick up a grain of rice and also lift a tree trunk.
References:
Murray E. Fowler, Susan K. Mikota (2006): Biology, Medicine, and Surgery of Elephants
Pflumm Walter (1996): Biologie der Säugetiere
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