By: Jessica Jin

An African bush elephant named Kelly lives at Zoo Atlanta in Georgia. In 2020, she reached for some food and that action made scientists realize that elephants’ trunks are stretchier on the top than the bottom.

On a high speed camera, the video of Kelly reaching for a snack showed that the skin of the top side of her trunk stretched more than the bottom. This confused many scientists because they assumed that the trunk was equally stretchy all around.

Scientists studied Kelly’s and another elephant, Msholo’s, trunk. They found out that when elephants stretch out their trunks, it’s not just the elephants’ muscles are used to stretch out the trunk; the folded skin on the trunk also helps. They also found out that the top part of the trunk has more folds and wrinkles, while the bottom is barely wrinkly. Since the top part has more folds, it stretches out more. The bottom also has a use: it helps the elephant hold things better.

Sources: The top side of an elephant’s trunk is surprisingly stretchy _ Science News Explores.pdf, Skin: An additional tool for the versatile elephant trunk: Elephant biomechanics suggests a new approach for soft robotics — ScienceDaily