The Kid Should See This

The incredible, bendable, twistable, expandable elephant trunk

Watch more with these video collections:

As a breeze blows through the savannah, a snake-shaped tube stretches into the air and scans the horizon like a periscope. But it’s not seeing— it’s sniffing. Containing no bones and an estimated 40,000 muscles, an elephant trunk is one of the most versatile tools in the animal kingdom.

Learn how elephants use their incredible, bendable, twistable, expandable trunks with this TED-Ed lesson by elephant conservationist and PhD candidate in environmental science Chase LaDue and Western Kentucky University professor Dr. Bruce A. Schulte.

elephant trunks
The short was directed by Petya Zlateva. Plus, Dig Deeper:

Many animals perceive the world and communicate with each other well outside the range of human senses, which means that biologists sometimes get creative to study what animals see, hear, taste, and smell…

elephant trunk

Elephants can hear well below frequencies that humans can, at frequencies in the infrasonic range. This infrasound allows their calls to travel over long distances, and we are discovering that more and more animals also use similar calls. But it also means that researchers studying infrasonic calls must have specific recording equipment to understand what these calls mean and how they are produced.

Related watching: How Elephants Listen … With Their Feet.

There are more elephant videos in the archives, including:
Elephants’ Incredible Intelligence
• A daddy Asian Elephant cuddles his calf
• An elephant finds her own fruit in the jungle
• Elephant calf river rescue

🌈 Watch these videos next...

Worm grunting: How can thousands of worms be summoned from the earth?

Rion Nakaya

Why isn’t the world covered in poop?

Rion Nakaya

Why are sloths so slow?

Rion Nakaya

Why are earthquakes so hard to predict?

Rion Nakaya

What’s the difference between hibernation and sleep?

Rion Nakaya

What makes that fresh rain smell? MIT films rain drops to find out

Rion Nakaya

What happens if you cut down all of a city’s trees?

Rion Nakaya

The wild world of carnivorous plants

Rion Nakaya

The three different ways mammals give birth

Rion Nakaya

Get smart curated videos delivered to your inbox.