Elephant Trunk - Exceptionally Delicate yet Tremendously Strong

The most distinguishable and unique features of the elephant is its trunk. It is the elephant’s most conspicuous body part, and also the mostly used part of the elephant.  Strangely, if you were to look at the elephant’s skeleton, you would never realise elephant had a trunk since this massive appendage does not have a single bone!

      

The elephant’s trunk is a fusion of the nose and upper lip. It is the elephant's most versatile tool.  An adult African elephant's trunk is about 6 to 8 feet long (taller than most of us) and has a diameter of about 15 centimetres at the tip, with nostril diameter of 2 inches. 

The elephant's trunk contains over 40,000 muscles. The human body only contains 639 muscles!  The trunk is so delicate it is at times used to wipe or clean their eyes. On the other hand, the trunk is an extremely powerful tool that can pull out trees and lift up to 350 kg!

The trunks have "fingers" (finger-like appendages that act like opposable thumbs). African elephant have two fingers while Asian elephant have only one finger. That is why the African elephant is able to grasp objects by pinching the opposing tips of the trunk. The Asian elephant must wrap its trunk round objects like a boa constrictor (it holds objects against the underside of the trunk).

Using the fingers, the elephant is able to crack a peanut shell with its trunk, without breaking the nut.

The elephants use the trunks to snorkel. They are the only animals that can snorkel without aid. By holding the tips of their trunks above the water's surface, elephants can traverse rivers totally submerged.

The trunks give elephants an incredibly powerful sense of smell – twice as sensitive as a bloodhound! It can smell of food and water from incredibly long distances – almost 20 kilometres away. Key to this ability is millions of receptor cells housed in the trunk’s upper nasal cavity.

An adult elephant trunk can hold roughly 10 litres of water. Contrary to popular belief, elephants do not drink with their trunks; they suck water up into them and then spray it into their mouths. They also use the water to spray over themselves to cool off. 

Elephants use their trunks to show compassion or comfort to another elephant. They rub each other with their trunks  as an act of compassion. Unconditional love! 

The elephant trunk is a versatile tool used for breathing, smelling, touching, grasping, and producing sound. It's probably the most amazing body part in the animal kingdom!

Brutal Man Eaters of Tsavo

The Uganda Railway line was a key infrastructural development in East Africa. It was a major tuff of power during the First World War within East Africa. This lunatic line was constructed from 1895 to 1901.  Its cost was exorbitant. It literally claimed lives of 2,500 Indian workers, unknown number of Africans.  A staggering 5.5 million sterling pounds were used. By then annual British government expenditure was around 113 million pounds.

Section of the railway line in Tsavo

Thousands of Indian labourers, derogatorily then referred to as coolies, were shipped to Africa to lay the lunatic line across some of the most hostile territory in the world. The railway climbs from sea level at Mombasa through Taru desert, grass plains, mountain and forest to cross the equator at an altitude of 2,785 metres before descending to 1,520 metres on the humid shores of Lake Victoria. The collies laid 1.2 millions sleepers and more than 2000,000 rails. The complete line boasted of 43 stations, 35 viaducts and 1,280 bridges.

In 1898, as the line approached Tsavo, a horrifying story unfolded. Two man eating lions systematically devoured at least 28 collies and unknown number of locals. The maleness brutes were real daredevils.

                 A lion at night in Tsavo 

They caused panic and fear among the railway workers.  Imagine retiring to bed pretty sure that one of your colleague will be missing in the morning roll-call courtesy of these brutes?  At one time the coolies vowed to return to India stating categolically they had come from India on an agreement to work for the government, not to supply food for the lions.

For weeks the two lions tactfully avoided elaborate traps laid by Lt. Col. J.H. Patterson. For several nights, Patterson sat on top of trees, with his rifle cocked with a goat or donkey bait tethered nearby, only to hear agonizing scream from distant camp as one on the worker was dragged and mauled by the lions. With time, the lions grew bolder, forcing their ways through the thorn fences (bomas). The workers became so terrified to extent that they believe the lions were devils.  Many collies slept in holes dug in the floor of their tents. The lions changed tactics and started attacking in pair. Initially, only one lion attacked, while the other waited in the nearby bush. 

    The maneaters cave where the lions lived

The brutes would get into the camps (bomas) without making a noise, grab one of the man from the tent and devour him quite close to the camp. Patterson narrates how on one particular night, the brutes seized a man from the railway station and brought him close to Patterson’s camp to devour. Patterson could plainly hear the lions crunching the bones and the sound of the lions dreadful purring filled the air.  

                  A lion feasting on a zebra 

On December 9, Patterson was successful in killing one of the man-eaters. The second lion killed three weeks later, on December 28th.

The skulls of the two maneater lions of Tsavo are 'preserved' at Chicagos field museum (FMNH 23970 and  FMNH 23969).

Lovely Antelopes that Pair for Life

Dik dik

These tiny and adorable animals, barely large enough to prod their heads above the tall savannah grass, have some of the most unique traits. 

Their name, dik dik, is derived from the sound they make when alarmed, zik zik as they run in a zigzag. They make the sound by whistling through their noses.

They have an elongated snout. This snout is very useful in cooling. It is an advanced cooling mechanism that stops the dik dik from overheating, even in extreme temperatures of up to 40°C. The diks pant to pump blood through their elongated snouts, where airflow and evaporation cool the blood down before it is pumped to the rest of the body. These remarkable antelopes can also lower their metabolic rate and adjust their body temperature based on the conditions.

Dik-dik do not live in herds. For them it is perpetual intimate. It is till death do us part.  Extramarital affairs are unheard of.  They pair for life! If by bad luck, one of them dies due to any circumstance, the remaining one becomes suicidal. The remaining one can even surrender to a predator due to loneliness.

Mothers are responsible for telling their daughters to leave. The fathers on the other hand must chase off the males. This happens before the baby dik-dik has reached eight months of age!

Dik-dik marks their territory with tears.  They release a special eye secretion from a bare black spot below the inside corner of each eye (preorbital gland). This gland produces a dark, sticky secretion. Diks poke their eyes in grass stems and twigs to spread the secretion, scent-marking their territories.

Dik diks are peace loving. They rarely fight. Instead, they use faeces to show how powerful a couple is by building up sizeable heaps of dung. The higher the dung the more impressive the couple. Some cunning families look for head starts by depositing their faeces on top of buffalo or elephant dung. 

These toilet-trained champs keep their territory clean, by depositing their faeces all in one place.

Unlike other antelopes, where the male is bigger, for the diks the females are bigger

The diks are not water reliant. They receive adequate water from the foliages, shoots, fruits and berries they eat.   When they do drink, which is rare, they lap water like a cat. They have the most concentrated urine and driest faeces of any ungulate.

They have a much ritualized breeding behavior. When ready to mate, the female stands very straight, with her back curved and her tail upright, and allows the male to mount her for a brief mating.

In Swahili they are known as Digi digi or Suguya 

Unfortunately, man is the greatest threats to the diks. For some strange reason, some people use their skin to make gloves. One Dik-dik can only make one pair of gloves. Imagine taking a life to make a pair of glove?  Stressing the surviving partner to even contemplate suicide? Shame on us, humans.