The elephant is the largest land animal and has no natural enemies.They live in family herds comprising of up to twenty adult females and their young under the leadership of the oldest elephant , the matriarch. The exception to this is the adult males who are solitary nomads attracted to a family group only when one of its mature adults or “cows” is ready to mate. They are found in Africa and Asia.
In this article I will restrict myself to the trunk because of its importance to the elephant.
An elephant can use its trunk to carry a tree, pick up a peanut, have a drink or take a shower.The Elephant trunk is the modified nose and upper lip lined with as many as forty plus individual muscles that allow it to bend and hold like an arm or hand. It is also so sensitive that it can pick up a single blade of grass.
The trunk of an African Elephant has two lips at the end while that of the Asian Elephant has only an upper one.
The Elephant trunk is multifunctional with six main roles, namely:
Sucking: The Elephant trunk sucks up to fourteen litres of water then blows it into its mouth or sprays its body to keep cool. It can also suck in dust and spray its body to reduce the parasite load. .
Feeding: The trunk is used to break off tree branches, pick off leaves and grass and even pluck fruits and put them into its mouth. The Elephant mouth would be useless without the trunk.
As a sense organ, the elephant trunk is its “fingure” as well as its nose. The elephant has a very well developed sense of smell. Raising the trunk up and swaying it from side to side, it can determine the location of friends, enemies, and food sources, much like a periscope. To follow a track, an elephant sweeps its trunk over the ground like a metal detector. It also uses the tip of its trunk to investigate another’s genitalia or mouth for clues about its identity, sex, age, and reproductive status.
Defence: The elephant defends itself by grasping and flinging the enemy using its trunk.
The trunk also plays a major role in social interactions such as play wrestling,caressing, during courtship and even in the mother baby relationship.
Communication: One of the many ways of communication in the rich elephant language is rumbles and trumpets.The former is low frequency infrasound while the later is audible to humans.It is the trunk that produces these sound , much like a wind instrument:

About the author:
Dr Marami has special interest in culture and wild animals. To learn more and to view various wood and stone sculptures visit :=>
http://ammarami.com