If you’re curious about megafauna, you may wonder just how large some of the biggest animals on Earth are. Elephants are one such type of large mammal, and they hold many records thanks to their large size, high intelligence, and dexterous trunks.
An elephant’s trunk is unique in the animal kingdom. No other animal has an all-purpose nose that can pick up objects, work as a snorkel, defend them from predators, and help them communicate with their relatives.
This article takes a look at just how long an elephant’s trunk is and how that trunk plays a role in the elephant’s day-to-day life. Here are a few points, which we’ll examine later on.
Key Takeaways:
- An elephant’s trunk ranges between 5 and 7 feet long, depending on how old the elephant is, which subspecies it is, and if it’s male or female.
- Males are larger than females and thus have longer trunks.
- Trunks are more important to elephants than their tusks. They can live without tusks, but they’ll die without a trunk.
How Long is An Elephant’s Trunk?
The average elephant has a trunk that is about 6 feet long. The trunk is a modified form of the upper lip and nose. It hangs downward from the face from the head all the way to the ground.
Trunks grow as the elephant does; you won’t see a small elephant with a giant trunk or a tall elephant with a tiny one. They are proportional to the size of the animal.
Can an Elephant Live Without Its Trunk?
Probably not. An elephant uses its trunk for everything, including feeding itself. It is prehensile, meaning it has a unique ability to grab things by wrapping around them.
There are very few appendages in the animal kingdom that are prehensile.
Some include:
- human hands
- some monkeys’ tails
- octopuses’ tentacles
- giraffes’ tongues
While an elephant without a trunk might be able to survive in captivity, it would be a poor type of life. The animal would have no way to smell and learn about its surroundings.
It would have difficulty communicating with other elephants because it wouldn’t be able to make the same noises other elephants could. Lastly, it would probably grow extremely bored and listless because it uses its trunk to explore and learn about its environment. An elephant living without a trunk would be essentially blind.
Does an Elephant’s Trunk Have Bones in it?
No. The trunk of an elephant is completely boneless. Instead of bones to help it articulate and grab objects, the elephant’s trunk contains over 40,000 muscles. Compare that to the entire human body, which has just 600 in comparison.
These muscles work together like a well-oiled machine to help the giant mammal explore its environment. Biologists divide the 40,000 muscles of the trunk into two categories: internal and superficial muscles.
The internal muscles are deep within the skull and trunk of the elephant. They control major movement, while the superficial muscles operate more on the outside of the trunk.
When an elephant is born, it must learn to gain control of the muscles in the trunk. The young elephant slowly makes the connection between the movement of the prehensile trunk and its ability to control it.
A nerve called the proboscideal nerve extends from the forehead into the trunk. This nerve gives the elephant heightened feeling so it is better able to experience and learn about its environment.
How Much Can an Elephant Lift with Its Trunk?
One elephant can lift as much as 770 pounds with its trunk. Elephants have extremely powerful muscles that grow stronger as they grow to adulthood. They learn to coordinate muscle movements when picking up smaller objects before moving on to bigger, heavier ones.
Male elephants are larger than females. They have more muscle mass and larger trunks, so it makes sense that they can lift heavier things.
Let’s examine the elephant’s living conditions. Why would it need to lift something so heavy?
Hunger is always a good motivator. The elephant might want to turn over a heavy tree branch or push at a termite mound. Elephants also use their trunks to fight with other elephants, especially in struggles for food and territory.
Can an Elephant’s Trunk Grow Back?
Unfortunately, no, an elephant’s trunk cannot grow back. We know that some lizards can regrow their tails after having them pulled off by predators. Elephants are not reptiles and they do not have the ability to regenerate their tissue.
Elephants can be at risk of losing their trunk from a few causes. Snares are especially problematic. A snare presents a cord that wraps around the appendage – bet it a neck, a foot, or a trunk, in this case – and cuts off the circulation.
Elephants are naturally protective of their trunks; this is why an elephant with tusks will do more difficult tasks with its tusks before using its trunk.
What do Elephants Use their Tusks for?
Elephants use their tusks for things they can’t use their trunk for. They might dig with them to find water in a dry season, or they can move heavy objects without straining, or even defend themselves from threats.
Tusk distribution is different among African and Asian elephants. Among Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) it’s usually just the males who have tusks. If females have tusks, they are much smaller.
Male and female African bush elephants (Loxodonta africana) have tusks, but males’ tusks are larger. The same is true with the African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis).
Conclusion
Elephants’ trunks may be a small part of their overall body mass, but they are this animal’s single most important appendage. The trunk is a multipurpose tool with thousands of uses. In the elephant’s native environment, it is able to find food, fellowship, and successfully survive thanks to its powerful trunk.
Anna is a wildlife biologist who graduated from Texas A&M in 2020. She enjoys studying and learning about wild birds and wildlife of all types.