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It’s another EleFact Friday, where we try to enhance your knowledge of elephants and sanctuary. This week, we’ll be talking about how elephants detect smells. You may already know that elephants have an incredible sense of smell, which is advanced enough to detect water sources up to 12 miles away. They have more smell receptors than any mammal, including dogs. A group of researchers discovered that not only are they sensitive to scent, they can use it to detect more from less. During tests, elephants were able to select containers that held various amounts of sunflower seeds and most of the time they selected the canister with more seeds, even when they couldn’t see them. They simply used sense of smell to make their determination. 

Scent travels through the nostrils, which are located at the tip of the trunk, and then move through a series of seven olfactory bones called turbinals. These turbinals have millions of olfactory receptor cells and can assist the elephant in, among other things, tracking, memory, finding a mate, and their sense of direction. Bambi is very nose oriented and lifts her trunk to smell what is going on around her constantly. With her compromised vision, she will likely begin to rely more heavily on her other senses, like smell.

Photo of Bambi and her impressive trunk