Elephant
trunks consist of thousands of nerves, no bones, capable of picking up a
coin. They can lose the tips to crocodiles, or more insidiously, to the
wire traps of poachers. If they should suffer such a calamity, they have
fourteen days to adapt before they die of starvation. Other elephants in
the herd will help them by stripping tree branches down for them to feed
on. Older or smarter elephants can understand how to feed them water. An
elephant´s trunk, a union of the nose and upper lip, is a highly sensitive
organ with over 100,000 muscle units. Elephants
cry, play, have incredible memories, and laugh! They're sensitive and compassionate;
if a baby complains, the entire family will rumble and go over to touch
and caress it. They have greeting ceremonies when a friend that has been
away for some time returns to the group, and grieve at a loss of a stillborn
baby, a family member, and in many cases other elephants. Elephants don't
drink with their trunks, but use them as "tools" to drink with.
This is accomplished by filling the trunk with water and then using it as
a hose to pour it into the elephant's mouth. We loved watching the young
elephant in the top left photo whose trunk could not reach both over the
wall and then deep enough into the water well to drink. She circumnavigated
the well until she found a step to stand on and tried again. Very smart
animal, really fascinating to see how quickly she figured it out and found
a solution.
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