Probably one of the most interesting morphological features of the elephant is its trunk. The trunk is an extremely flexible muscular organ which can be used with the finest touch. It is an important part of an elephant's life by being used as an exploratory organ, for feeding, for drinking and for friendly wrestling matches.
At the first hint of danger and elephant will raise its trunk to smell any reason for the threat. It is also used for a whole range of smelling tasks as one of the elephant's primary sensory inputs (along with hearing). Whether it is to smell to see if a female is sexually receptive, or to explore the food in another elephant's mouth, the trunk plays a vital part in its life. In fact, it is almost impossible for an elephant to survive if its trunk becomes damaged. An elephant calf can lift about 4.5% of its own weight with its trunk. In the case of an elephant bull it ranges around 270kg. It is estimated that the trunk contained 40,000 muscles!! Amazingly, the entire human body only has 639 muscles.
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