elephant anatomy

One of the first things that people think of when they think “elephant” is tusks. It’s iconic when it comes to elephant imagery, but female Asian elephants don’t actually have tusks. Many of them have short tusk-like protuberances that seldom grow many inches below the gum line. The longer the…...

A few of the elephants at Elephant Sanctuary Brazil have wounds that are currently healing and which are healing slowly. Several of you asked about the injuries that Lady endured, and that Rana, and Bambi have been dealing with, so we thought as this week’s EleFact Friday we’d talk about…...

We’ve written several EleFacts about the elephant trunk, and this week we’ll be looking at another aspect of the trunk – how it extends. The trunk is multi-functional in that it has to be gentle and flexible enough to grab tiny blades of grass, but tough enough to knock down…...

Did you know that ‘pachyderm’ is Greek for ‘thick skin’? We’ve shared about the impressive capabilities of elephant skin through several different EleFacts and, as seasons change here at the sanctuary, we occasionally get asked about how the residents manage to keep cool when their skin is so thick. ...