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At mealtime, we often see the elephants scooping trunkfuls of hay or produce and walking away to eat it. Sometimes they’ll end up just stuffing the whole bundle in their mouths. Other times they’ll carry it around for a bit, and then sit it down on the ground to eat at a later time. Occasionally, they’ll toss it all over their head and back. 

Another cool feature of elephants that we can’t really photograph is their ability to take water to go as well. Because of the many miles elephants migrate and the difficulty they can sometimes have finding water, they have a part of their anatomy called the pharyngeal pouch that they can use to store several liters of water for drinking and cooling off. 

When elephants drink, they suck up water with their trunks and squirt it into their mouths. It can go into the pharyngeal pouch, located near the top of the throat, or, if the muscles surrounding the pouch are squeezed shut, straight into the stomach. If the elephant isn’t finding water (or in the case of the girls at sanctuary, doesn’t feel like walking back to the water trough), she can stick her trunk into her mouth, suck up water from the pouch and either shoot it back into her mouth to drink or spray it over her body to cool off. Pretty amazing, huh?

Photo of Bambi and Guillermina, with Bambi sneaking a drink from the water container. There are several waterers throughout the habitat and they automatically refill with cool water after an elephant drinks.