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Flapping their ears also helps cool down the front of their body as the flapping creates a slight breeze. Fapping ears keeps pesky insects at bay. too! Do Big Ears Give Elephants Better Hearing?
Flapping them creates air currents and exposes the ears' inner sides where large blood vessels increase heat loss during hot weather. The trunk is a prehensile elongation of its upper lip and nose. This highly sensitive organ is innervated primarily by the trigeminal nerve , and is thought to be manipulated by about 40,000–60,000 muscles.
Warm blood flows into the capillaries, releasing excess heat into the environment. This effect is increased by flapping the ears back and forth. Larger ear surfaces contain more capillaries, and more heat can be released. Of all the elephants, African bush elephants live in the hottest climates and have the largest ear flaps.
The African bush elephant has grey skin with scanty hairs. Its large ears cover the whole shoulder, [12] and can grow as large as 2 m × 1.5 m (6 ft 7 in × 4 ft 11 in). [13] Its large ears help to reduce body heat; flapping them creates air currents and exposes large blood vessels on the inner sides to increase heat loss during hot weather. [14]
The animals' reactions demonstrated they were happy with their move, the elephants’ manager Erin Gardiner said. “The behaviors that we saw that indicated to us that they felt really comfortable and also excited to see each other were lots of ear flapping, trunk touching, lots of vocalizations,” Gardiner said.
African elephant ears are far bigger than those of their ancestors and are said to take on the shape of Africa. Asian elephant ears are fashioned like the Indian subcontinent. The trunks of ...
8. Why are elephants bad dancers? They have two left feet. 9. What do you get when you cross a fish with an elephant? Swimming trunks! 10. What goes down but never goes up? An elephant in an ...
Asian elephants do not have this concern, as they live in more tropical and wet climates. The post Size, Tusks, and Ears: How African and Asian Elephants Differ appeared first on A-Z Animals ...