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an elephants footprint is very distinct and can give away a lot of information to identify that elephant

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elephant facts!

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important elephant facts

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ELEPHANT FACTS Interesting both physically and socially, there is a wealth of "fun facts" regarding elephants. Please note, however, that the information contained herein refers to the "average" animal and that there are a number of variations from elephant to elephant. DIET, DIGESTION, GAS AND MANURE

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elephant trunk facts!

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baby elephant learning how to use her trunk

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This adorable baby elephant was born to a mother who is part of an elite team of critically endangered Sumatran elephants that help protect communities from conflict with wild elephants in Indonesia. She's nearly 4 months old, growing fast and starting to imitate her mother's behaviour.

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elephant family behavior

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Social behavior in a family of elephants

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elephants showing affection

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the oldest elephant in captivity- lived to 87

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10 interesting facts about an elephants trunk!

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CC BY 2.0 Ryan Poplin/flickr

Amazing secrets of the excellent elephant trunk revealed!
We may take the trunk of an elephant for granted, so accustomed are we to seeing these iconic animals with their long agile noses arching with a spray of water. But when you stop to consider this oddest of dangling appendages, one quickly remembers what a curious animal part it is. Imagine having, essentially, a supernaturally strong skin-covered slinky attached to your face ... one that can caress, has fine motor skills, and is so sensitive it can feel distant thunder from vibrations in the ground.

Among the trunk's many exceptional features, consider these wonders.

It is many body parts in one

The trunk is both an upper lip and a nose, with two nostrils running through the whole thing. At the trunk's tip, African elephant have two fingers while Asian elephants have one. The dexterity of the fingers allows an elephant the ability to do things like deftly pick up a single blade of grass or hold a paintbrush.

It has mighty muscles

An elephant's trunk has eight major muscles on either side and 150,000 muscle bundles in all. It is so strong that it can push down trees and lift a whopping 700,000 pounds.

Its got the moves

Like the human tongue, the trunk is a muscular hydrostat - a boneless muscular structure that allows for its excellent maneuverability.

It has reach

Imagine how awkward it would be for an elephant to squat down for its mouth to reach water, or how long its neck would have to be to reach leaves? The trunk takes care of all of this - and in fact can reach branches 20 feet high. Think of the selfies it could take, no selfie stick required.

It has a built-in snorkel

That great reach makes the elephant unique in another category as well - it is the only animals that can effectively snorkel on its own. By extending the trunk out of the water, elephants can cross bodies of water that would prove too deep for other less-equipped animals.

It possesses a phenomenal sense of smell

The upper nasal cavities have chemical and olfactory sensors in the form of millions of receptor cells. So sensitive is an elephant's trunk that is more capable than a bloodhound's nose and is said to be able to smell water from several miles away.

It feels the vibes

Aside from smell, the trunk is sensitive to vibrations; from the ground it can sense the rumble of faraway herds and even far-off thunder.

It's a dynamo of hydro engineering

The trunk may be most famous for its display of spray as it sucks up water to drink and splash. But just how effective of a water tool is it? It can suck up to 10 gallons of water a minute and can hold up to two gallons of water at a time! (And for the record, the elephant doesn't drink directly through the trunk, yet uses it so bring water to its mouth.)

It says a lot

Not only is the trunk used for breathing (and smelling and drinking and feeding) it is also used for social purposes like greetings and caresses. From National Geographic:

The relationship between a mother elephant and her offspring is a protective, reassuring, and comforting one. Mothers and other family members caress the young in many different ways, by wrapping a trunk over the calf's back leg... Mothers also wrap their trunks around the calf's belly, over its shoulder, and under its neck, often touching its mouth. A gentle rumbling sound often accompanies the caress gesture.

It's a comfort item

Joyce Poole has been studying elephants for nearly 4 decades - and is co-founder of Elephant Voices. She explains to National Geographic that when an elephant feels uneasy, or is ambivalent about what to do next, he or she may use the trunk in a "touch-face" gesture, a "self-directed touching of the face, mouth, ear, trunk, tusk, or temporal gland, apparently to reassure and self-soothe." Apparently, elephants pet themselves with their trunks to makes themselves feel better.

In conclusion, a video of a baby elephant learning to use her trunk. Because, "baby elephant learning to use her trunk."
This updated article was originally published in 2016.
Amazing secrets of the excellent elephant trunk revealed!

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10 extraordinary facts about elephant trunks

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Amazing secrets of the excellent elephant trunk revealed! We may take the trunk of an elephant for granted, so accustomed are we to seeing these iconic animals with their long agile noses arching with a spray of water. But when you stop to consider this oddest of dangling appendages, one quickly remembers what a curious animal part it is.

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elephant knocking down tree

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although elephants knock down trees, they are important to tree/forest life

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Did you know the effects of elephants' activities ripple far beyond the gentle giants themselves? In fact, an entire ecosystem depends on these social, intelligent animals - which is why if elephants disappear, the world will be less inhabitable for all species, including human.

Elephants are what scientists call a "keystone species;" that is, their influence on the ecosystem is especially great. The habits of the African forest elephant, in particular - a distinct species that differs significantly from its counterpart, the savanna elephant - has an impact as enormous as the endangered pachyderm itself.

A recent report published in Conservation Biology by John R. Poulsen of Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment and his colleagues explains that, as fruit-eating animals, elephants are essential for helping a variety of trees flourish. With elephants consuming certain fruits and consequently, pooping out the seeds, a wide variety of plants are able to grow.

Elephants also trample stems and roots. And while that may sound like a bad thing for a forest, it actually helps reduce plant density, allowing larger trees to rise up. Should elephants go extinct, the fundamental changes in forest structure would alter the species composition of up to 96 percent of Central African forests, according to the report's authors.

The effects would extend far beyond Africa, as the tall forest trees absorb carbon dioxide, helping keep global warming at bay. Losing these trees could contribute to an already out-of-control climate crisis, causing very real repercussions to all life on Earth.

Bans help, but there's more work to be done

This scenario could soon be more than hypothetical. More than 60 percent of Africa's forest elephants have been poached in the past decade, according to the African Wildlife Foundation. In fact, the species now inhabits a mere one-fourth of their historic range.

Despite international efforts to halt the commercial ivory trade responsible for killing an astonishing 100 elephants per day, the demand for elephant tusks remains. The good news is that leading countries like the U.S., the U.K., and most recently, China, have banned new ivory - though loopholes allowing supposed "antique" ivory still leaves the door open for poachers to continue their trade. Similarly, the Trump administration has lifted the existing ban on importing elephant trophies into the United States, creating another potential loophole for poachers to exploit.

Yet despite the setbacks, awareness of these incredible animals' plight is only growing. As activists continue to speak out, lawmakers across the globe are listening. With hope, we will save this iconic species, and the health of African forests along with it.

Nina Jackel is founder and president of Lady Freethinker, a nonprofit organization dedicated to publishing news, petitions and grassroots actions to create a more compassionate world for all species. LFT works to stop animal cruelty in the dog meat trade, dogfighting industry, factory farming and more.

Why the entire forest needs elephants

African forest elephants help trees grow larger and spread seeds across ecosystems, according to a recent report.

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Did you know the effects of elephants' activities ripple far beyond the gentle giants themselves? In fact, an entire ecosystem depends on these social, intelligent animals - which is why if elephants disappear, the world will be less inhabitable for all species, including human.

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elephant knocking down tree

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elephants in some places knock down too many trees

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Tree loss in areas with elephants is up to six times higher than in regions without the voracious pachyderms, suggests a new aerial survey.

Human s have essentially engineered the problem by relocating, either directly or indirectly, pachyderm populations. According to the survey, described in the journal Ecology Letter s, elephants prefer toppling trees in the 16- to 30-foot range, with annual losses of up to 20 percent in these height classes.

A strong elephant can topple over a tree in mere seconds. If you jump to around the 1:45 mark in the video below, you can see a mother elephant knocking over a tree so that her calves can enjoy the leaves and fruit.

The discovery presens a tough issue: Trees provide food, shelter, shade and more for numerous other species. But elephants are just doing what comes naturally to survive. "Save an Elephant, Kill a Tree" isn't exactly a catchy conservation phrase.

The losses were documented in the South African savannas of Kruger National Park. In the future, the data could help to inform conservationists about the needs and impacts of elephants.

High-tech lasers swept across the park, providing detailed 3-D images. The lasers were mounted on the fixed-wing Carnegie Airborne Observatory.

"Previous field studies gave us important clues that elephants are a key driver of tree losses, but our airborne 3-D mapping approach was the only way to fully understand the impacts of elephants across a wide range of environmental conditions found in savannas," lead author Greg Asner of Carnegie's Department of Global Ecology was quoted as saying in a press release.

"Our maps show that elephants clearly toppled medium-sized trees," he added, "creating an 'elephant trap' for the vegetation. These elephant-driven tree losses have a ripple effect across the ecosystem, including how much carbon is sequestered from the atmosphere."

For years, scientists at the park have wondered what was happening to all of the trees and vegetation. They knew elephants were big eaters, of course, but thought herbivores, like rabbits, or fires might be doing in much of the greenery.

Some areas at the park have been closed off to all herbivores larger than a rabbit. Others permitted herbivores other than elephants to enter.

Because of this separation, the scientists were able to compare and contrast what happens to trees with or without elephants around.

The researchers discovered that nearly 9 percent of all studied tree species decreased in height in two years. The documented changes in treefall were linked to different climate and terrain conditions. Most tree losses occurred in lowland areas with more moisture and on soils high in nutrients that harbor trees preferred by elephants for browsing.

"This collaboration between external scientists and conservation managers has led to exciting and ground-breaking new insights to long-standing questions and challenges," Danie Pienaar, head of scientific services of South African National Parks, said.

"Knowing where increasing elephant impacts occur in sensitive landscapes allows park managers to take appropriate and focused action," Pienaar added. "These questions have been difficult to assess with conventional ground-based field approaches over large scales such as those in Kruger National Park."

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Elephants May Be Knocking Over Too Many Trees

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Tree loss in areas with elephants is up to six times higher than in regions without the voracious pachyderms, suggests a new aerial survey. Human s have essentially engineered the problem by relocating, either directly or indirectly, pachyderm populations.

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the worlds largest elephant

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elephants drink around 30-50 gallons of water a day!

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I found it interesting how Caitlin volunteered with Etosha National Park then they offered her a 3 year studying job!

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A new study that used GPS tracking data to analyze the movement patterns of elephants inside Etosha National Park has proved that the animals' exceptional memories of their habitats and their resources makes a valuable contribution to their survival in such a challenging environment.

The study was the first of its kind to use statistical analyses of tracking data to investigate fundamental questions of elephant decision-making.

Professor George Wittemyer of Colorado State University said "it is really exciting to engage with the new windows into wildlife behaviour that technology is opening"

The team found that elephants consistently managed to pinpoint the closest water point to their location, beginning purposeful movement towards water across distances up to 50kms.

Lead author Leo Polansky said "we have anecdotes of incredible, singular long-distance migrations of elephants to far-flung waterholes throughout Africa".

In a landscape as arid as Etosha, direct travel toward water and minimizing travel distance to water is critical to the elephants wellbeing and the amount of energy the expend.

Myths of elephants' remarkable memories have abounded for centuries, but this is the first study to show the mechanisma whereby this remarkable memory directly contributees to the elephants' survivial.

Werner Kilian, another of the study's authors, said that the intricate understanding of the elephants' spatial context demonstrated in the study was "a testament to the species' cognitive ability".

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A new study that used GPS tracking data to analyze the movement patterns of elephants inside Etosha National Park has proved that the animals' exceptional memories of their habitats and their resources makes a valuable contribution to their survival in such a challenging environment.

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elephant painting