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At sanctuary, we periodically work on each individual elephant’s nails, pads, and cuticles to make sure they are healthy. There are times when they might need to be trimmed and otherwise maintained so that we know they are wearing at an appropriate rate and not putting pressure on the bones in their feet – and lots of other things. This week’s EleFact discusses information, especially about hormones, that we can learn from elephant nail trimmings. 

Researchers can find out critical information about things like reproductive health and responses to stress from looking at an elephant’s hormone levels. In the past, studies have focused on what can be learned from urine and stool samples; but that only offers results from a small window of time. The slow-growing nature of nails may make it easier to get long-term information from examining the trimmings after a footwork session. 

A study found that elephant toenails grow particularly slowly, with an approximate growth rate of 0.21mm/day. This gradual increase could mean that toenails may contain a sort of “hormone timeline” of perhaps more than a year, when measuring from the nail bed to tip. Levels of specific hormones can tell us information about elephant stress levels, and where females are in their reproductive cycle or pregnancy. In males, the study found that certain hormones could help detect the sometimes hard-to-pinpoint musth status. 

Though further study is necessary, tracking these cycles or patterns in elephants could be an effective new tool to help make decisions about elephant populations in the wild. Museums and research organizations can look at generations-old elephant nails for information about how ancient elephants lived and the challenges they faced, including those that led up to their death. 

For more information, you can read the study here: https://academic.oup.com/conphys/article/12/1/coae048/7725879

Photo of Dr. Mateus working on Rana’s feet