What animal has an appendage more useful than a “Swiss army knife”?
The elephant’s trunk can breathe, rub an itchy eye, scratch an ear, greet and hug a friend, pick up a 300 pound load, snatch a penny lying flat on the floor and locate a nearby friend or food. It can grab tasty leaves from 23 feet up in a tree, tear up food and place it into its mouth, knock down a tree, use it like a hose to suck up over four gallons of water per minute!
Many other trunk uses include showering by spraying water over its body, sensing enemies, sprinkling dust and slinging mud on itself as protection from biting flies or the hot sun. The trunk can also be used to dig 10 feet deep for water, raise a warning, wrestle with friends, swim underwater using it as a snorkel. The elephant has nearly 25 different calls when communicating to the herd and makes a wide variety of sounds by changing its nostril size.
The elephant’s trunk is truly a marvelous tool.
It can measure seven feet long and weigh as much as 400 pounds. The trunk alone has more than 100,000 independently controlled muscles; humans have only 639 muscles. The elephant’s multipurpose trunk is far too complicated to have come about by accident and chance.
(Source: Inspired Evidence Lanny Johnson, “More than just a Nose”, Alpha and Omega Institute 2006)
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