African Wildlife & Environment Issue 78

NATURE NOTES

Nadine Clarke

INCREDIBLE ELEPHANTS Have you taken a moment to stop and think about what an incredible animal the elephant is? So strange looking, so big and so important to the environment. Imagine being an elephant what would life look like? Well firstly you would be part of a family herd unless you are an adult bull as they sometimes move around on their own.Your family would be led by a wise old gran called a matriarch who has learnt all the ways of the wilderness.You would also spend most of your life sleeping, standing up. But how would you eat, what would you use your tusks for and what about that trunk? Let’s discover a few facts about the largest and heaviest animal that walks the earth.

TRUNK TALES Take a moment to imagine what it must be like to have a trunk.The elephant’s trunk is incredible.The trunk is in fact the nose and the upper lip merged. It allows the elephant to reach for food high up in the treetops, powerfully strip bark, break branches and nibble up small fruits off the ground. It is also used for drinking, blowing bubbles in the waterhole and trumpeting.The elephant also has an excellent sense of smell.The trunk is incredibly versatile as it is made up of thousands of muscles. It takes several months for a young elephant to work out how to operate the trunk! Look at the clip of this young one trying to figure it out. Scientists were fascinated with the elephant trunk and were inspired to build a robotic arm modelled on the trunk design.

Watch a baby elephant learn to use his trunk

The African elephant has two finger-like projections at the end of its trunk whilst the Asian

Watch a robotic arm modeled on a elephant trunk win a prize

elephant has one.

60 | African Wildlife & Environment | Issue 78 (2021)