Elephant Trunk | Elephant Tusks | Elephant Teeth
Elephant Trunk
One of the most interesting features of an elephant is its trunk. An elephants trunk is both an upper lip and an extension of the nose with two nostrils running through the whole length.
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The trunk has more than 40,000 muscles in it which is more than a human has in their whole body. A human being only has 639 muscles in total. An elephants trunk is both strong and very agile. It can perform multiple tasks from pushing over heavy trees to picking up the smallest twig.
An elephant uses its trunk to pick up and throw objects, rub an itchy eye or ear, fills it with water and then pours it into its mouth to drink and also as a snorkel when swimming under water.
Elephants also use it for feeding and for friendly wrestling matches with other elephants.
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The trunk plays an important role in an elephant's life by being used as an exploratory organ. The trunk is extremely flexible and can be used with the finest touch.
At the first sign of danger, an elephant raises it's trunk to smell the air and detect the smell of what is threatening. An elephant uses a whole range of smelling tasks as it is one of the elephants primary sensory organs, along with the ears. An elephants trunk is so important and vital to it's life that it would be almost impossible for the elephant to survive should it ever get damaged.
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Most animals use their nose solely for breathing, however, the elephant also uses its trunk for water storage and for drawing in mud and dust to spray over themselves to clean or cool down.
An average elephant can hold and store 4 litres of water inside its trunk. The trunk has a sparse covering of fine sensory hairs and the skin covering the front of the trunk has rings of deep crevasses and resembles a slinky.
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The African elephant has two prehensile fingers at the tip of it's trunk which are used to grab hold of objects and smaller items. The Asian elephant has only one finger at the end of it's trunk and usually only uses its trunk to scoop things up. Elephants can lift very heavy weights with it's trunk, but it is important to remember that each elephant is individual and unique and the amount of weight each can lift varies.
The trunk is not usually used on combat or for fighting with, but it can be used to make threatening gestures. However, elephants do use their trunks to play fight which can be quite interesting to observe.
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Another interesting observation is when an elephant is charging. If it's trunk is stretched out in front, then the elephant is just bluffing. However, it the trunk is curled or tucked downwards then it means business and is serious about its intentions.
Like all vertebrates, elephants possess the Jacobson's organ in its mouth (a smelling organ).
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The elephant tests and experiments with different odours by touching a particular object with it's trunk and then placing the trunk in it's mouth. Elephants are very inquisitive creatures.
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Elephant tusks are very elongated incisor teeth. Elephants do not have any canine teeth at all. Both male and female African elephants have tusks, however, only the male species of the Asian elephant has them.
Tusks continue growing for most of the elephant's life. They are an age indicator - much like the elephant's feet, the age of the elephant can be estimated by observing their tusks.
The size of an elephant's tusks is an inherited characteristic, however, because of ivory hunters, it would be quite rare today to find and elephant whose tusks weigh more than 100 pounds.
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The total length of the tusks is not apparent on the outside of the elephant, about a third of the length of the tusk lies hidden inside the elephants skull. This is the unfortunate reason ivory hunters destroy the elephant for their tusks instead of just cutting them off. Ivory is really only dentine and is no different from ordinary teeth. It is the diamond shaped pattern of the elephant's tusk which can be distinguished when viewed from a cross-section which gives elephant ivory it's distinctive lustre.
Elephants are either 'left-tusked' or 'right-tusked', just like a human being might be 'left-handed' or 'right-handed'. The favoured tusk is usually shorter than the other due to constant use. Tusks on an individual elephant can differ in shape, length, thickness and growth direction. Male elephants tend to have heavier, longer and more stouter tusks than females do.
An elephant uses its tusks to many many tasks just like its trunk. They use their tusks for digging, ripping bark of trees, foraging, carrying heavy objects and for resting a wary, heavy trunk on. They will also use them as weapons should they ever encounter conflict.
Tusks in a baby elephant (Calf) are present at birth and are really only like milk teeth. They measure only about 5 centimetres long. These 'milk tusks' will fall out around their first birthday. Their permanent tusks will then start to protrude beyond their lips at around 2 - 3 years old and will continue to grow throughout their lives.
Tusks grow at about 15 - 18 centimetres per year, however, they are continually worn down with constant use. Should they be allowed to continually grow without use, they would grow into a spiral shape (similar to those of the extinct woolly mammoth) as they typically grow following a curved growth pattern.
Interestingly, some elephants are born without tusks. This hereditary condition causes huge differences in the musculature and shape of the neck and the head of the elephant. Also, the carriage of the head is different and the bones at the back of the skull are less developed.
Not all male Asian elephants have tusks, there is approximately 40 - 50% of male Asian elephants that are tuskless. These particular males are known as 'Makhnas' in India.
Elephant teeth
An elephant's teeth are very unique in the manner in which they proceed from the back of each half jaw towards the front. The teeth follow a linear progression. As the front teeth continuously become more worn down they are slowly replaced with new teeth that give the elephant an ability to chew the coarse foods it eats particularly tree bark. The elephant has a total of 24 teeth, but only 2 are usually in use at any one time.
When an elephant is born, a Calf has four developing teeth in each side of it's jaws. These consist of their smallish first and second teeth which are present after birth and the end of a third and a forth which is still below the gum. As each tooth wears out, it is pushed forward to the front of the mouth and it slowly wears into a shelf as the roots are absorbed. The shelf eventually will break off and the remaining piece will be pushed out of the mouth.
After the first two teeth are gone, parts of the two adjacent teeth are being worn down in each half of the jaw. This process continues until the 6th and sometimes 7th molar appears. The 6th molar weighs on average an incredible 4kg and has a maximum grinding length of 21 centimetres (and a width of 7 centimetres). This 6th molar will be present for around half the elephants life. When the last molar tooth is worn down and the elephant can no longer chew properly, unfortunately it will usually starve or develop malnutrition and eventually die. This does not happen until the elephant is at least 60 - 70 years old. Below is a table showing the onset and loss of each tooth and age the above process usually occurs:
Molar |
Molar Appearance |
Molar Loss |
1 |
At birth |
2 years old |
2 |
At birth |
6 years old |
3 |
1 year old |
13 - 15 years old |
4 |
6 years old |
28 years old |
5 |
18 years old |
43 years old |
6 |
30 years old |
65 years old + |
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The molars of an elephant differ between the African and Asian species. Both have a series of ridges (laminae) which run across the tooth. However, in the Asian elephant the ridges are parallel as opposed to the diamond shaped ridges in the African elephant. Although the Asian elephant has grazing teeth, it is usually spends most of its time in forests as opposed to plains like the African elephant. |
In both species of elephant, the movement of the jaw during chewing is forwards and backwards, unlike cows who use sideways movements to chew their cud. Therefore, the ridges act as two rasps grating upon one another and is made more effective by the teeth being slightly curved along the lengths.
