Why does an elephant have a long trunk and such huge ears? Wildlife: why does an elephant need a trunk? An elephant's trunk represents.

Everyone on our planet, without exception, knows what an elephant looks like. But not everyone can correctly tell and explain why he needs such an organ as a trunk. Let's first find out what a trunk is and what it looks like. Some people say that the trunk is some kind of nose. And some people think that the trunk is a hand. But all these people are right, and the trunk has many functions.

Firstly, it is considered an organ of smell, like the nose in humans. An elephant will be able to smell different smells from a great distance if it turns its trunk to the side.

Secondly, the trunk can serve as an animal's lip when it obtains food and then puts it in its mouth. The trunk can also be the tool with which an elephant plucks leaves from trees and even draws water when it is hot and thirsty. That is, the trunk can also serve as a hand. And if an elephant is suddenly bitten by midges, it can scratch itself with its trunk or drive away the annoying insects.

From time to time, the elephant uses its trunk to fight enemies. His blow can be so powerful that it will cripple the offender or even lead to his death. In ancient times, colonialists from England used elephants for a very long time as labor force. Thanks to the properties of its trunk, it can carry things with heavy weight, clear roads in sparsely populated areas and cut down trees. During mating season An elephant must use its trunk because this is the only way male elephants can get the attention of a female. But even more importantly, with the help of the roar emitted by the trunk, these animals can communicate with their relatives and convey messages to them. From this list of functions of the trunk, you can already understand that this organ is indispensable for elephants.

Scientists have learned that the trunk used to be a lip, which over time merged with the nose. And now the trunk is a very mobile and powerful muscular tube. Just as all humans have a nose that is divided by a nasal septum, so an elephant has two openings in its trunk. At its end there are very small, but strong and trained muscles that serve as the elephant’s fingers. You know that elephants descended from mammoths? If yes, then you should know that mammoths had tusks. Elephants also have them, although they have changed a little. They are also located in the upper jaw, like in mammoths.

Why does an elephant need tusks?

The tusks themselves are simple upper teeth, but grew to an incredible size. Although these are ordinary teeth, they are of great importance in the life of all elephants. Female elephants do not have the massive tusks that elephants can display. In males they are longer and thicker. During the mating season, elephants compete with each other for the ability to procreate with a particular female elephant. In these cases, the tusks act as dangerous weapons. Elephants also often use tusks to ensure the safety of their family and offspring from formidable predators, after all, not every tiger or lion will decide to fight an elephant or elephant, because there is a risk of being killed with one blow.

A week ago I was visiting a friend, and she had a little son. Of course, you can’t come to visit without a gift, but he can’t have sweets. I chose a toy - a baby elephant. And here the childish reasons began. The most important question, of course, was about the elephant's trunk.

What do elephants look like and what do they eat?

I think many people have ever been to a zoo and seen a live elephant. The size of this animal is impressive. It is the elephant that is considered the largest representative terrestrial mammals. An adult elephant can reach four meters in height. And its body weight can range from 3 to 7 tons. For example, the weight of the most ordinary car is about 1.5 tons.

The skin probably also significantly affects its weight, since the thickness skin animal 2.5 cm. The most important, probably characteristic features of an elephant are its trunk and huge ears. It is the ears that save elephants from the heat. They skillfully fan their bodies with them and achieve a cooling effect. An elephant's trunk consists of upper lip and nose. Mass is assigned to this part of the body important functions.

An elephant spends most of its time eating food. Almost 16 hours a day he tirelessly eats various types of vegetation. An elephant's diet includes:

• grass and roots;
• tree leaves;
• bananas;
• apples.

IN natural conditions an elephant can easily eat 250–300 kg of vegetation. Elephants are also water drinkers; they can drink 100–300 liters per day.

Why does an elephant need a trunk?

The trunk is simply an irreplaceable part of the elephant's body. It can be up to 1.5 meters in length and weigh up to 150 kg. Just imagine, one elephant trunk weighs as much as two average people. In the past, the ancestors of elephants could not boast of such a large trunk; they had it in the form of a small appendage, but during the process of evolution, significant changes occurred in the structure.

Thanks to its trunk, an elephant can:

• carry heavy objects;
• get your own food;
• take water procedures;
• smell well;
• quench your thirst.

Elephants do not know how to use their trunk correctly from birth. Elephants first teach their offspring this skill.

You've probably often been to the zoo and watched films about animals, and there you probably saw a huge animal called an elephant. And perhaps you have often wondered: why does an elephant have such a long nose and huge ears? And what do you know about this giant anyway? Today we will share with you interesting story about elephants.

Why does an elephant need big ears and a long trunk?

And by the way, due to the fact that elephants’ ears are large, they hear much more. better than man. By the way, maybe you noticed that elephants (like many other animals) sleep standing up. Most of the time he looks for food (after all, such incredible dimensions need to be fed somehow), and the elephant only needs four hours a day to sleep.

Elephants mainly eat grass, bark, roots and leaves, as well as flowers and fruits. elephants tear with their trunk. Thanks to its strong muscles, the elephant's trunk is very flexible and mobile. The trunk is capable of picking up even very small objects from the ground - roots, fallen fruits, and so on. An elephant can also use its trunk to draw up to six liters of water at a time!

When it's hot, elephants sit in the shade, flapping their ears to cool their bodies. They love to take baths, pouring water over themselves (which they collect using their trunk-hose) and rolling around in dirt and dust. By taking such mud baths, elephants protect themselves from bites. sunburn and fluid loss.

Elephants also use their trunk to communicate. A long trumpet call calls the whole herd together. A short sharp sound is the sound of fear. Powerful blows to the ground with the trunk show irritation and anger.

Elephants are very important and now your knowledge about them has increased so much that you may well surprise your friends with them. But you can learn much more about the life of elephants if you ask your parents to read you a children’s encyclopedia about animals (this is if you don’t know how to read, but if you already know how to read and write, you can read about elephants and other animals yourself).

Olga Korovina
Project “Where does an elephant get its trunk”

« Where does an elephant get its trunk?»

Ivanov Yaroslav

MBDOUd/s№12 "Our happiness"

Application.

According to the text of the annotation - presentation « Where does an elephant get its trunk?» (28 illustrations on sheets, 1 copy).

Contest research preschool projects

Where does an elephant get its trunk??

Section: “My first educational and research project»

(natural science direction)

Ivanov Yaroslav,

MBDOU d/s#12 "Our happiness"

Tbilisi district,

Tbilisskaya village

Scientific supervisors:

« Where does an elephant get its trunk?»

Ivanov Yaroslav

MBDOU d/s#12 "Our happiness"

Annotation.

I love learning new and interesting things about the world around us. Most of all I like listening to my mother read, studying and looking at illustrations, watching TV shows and films about animals. My favorite animal is elephant.

I recently visited the Darwin Museum, where I saw the fossil baby mammoth Lyuba and other exhibits elephants and mammoths.

I asked my parents a question:

From where elephants have a trunk, after all, animals descended from dinosaurs and them from there was no trunk?

Hypothesis: elephant trunk appeared in the process of evolution.

Target: explore life elephants and trunk functions. Consider evolutionary development elephants.

Object of study: elephants.

Tasks:

Explore life elephants.

Identify functional tasks elephant trunk.

Find the answer to your question « Where does an elephant get its trunk??»

Life elephants.

Elephant- the largest and most powerful animal on earth. They are surpassed in size only by whales.

live elephants 70-80 years old, eat plant foods. Elephant feeds on grass and tree leaves.

They sleep little - half as much as a person. This gives them the opportunity to spend more time searching for food. They move freely through swamps and thickets, easily climb large mountain slopes, and swim well. The body is covered with skin that cannot be damaged by any thorns or thorns.

There are two kinds in the world elephants, each with one type.

African - lives in forest areas of tropical Africa.

Indian - lives in Sri Lanka and the Indian Peninsula, in the countries of Indochina, South China and on the major islands of Indonesia.

Elephants live in herds(family groups). The herd ranges from 10 to 35 elephants with little elephants and one old elephant . U elephants Mostly one baby is born at a time. baby elephants very cute and cute babies who travel by grasping proboscis for mom's tail.

The most favorite activity For elephants are food. Every day he eats up to 250 kilograms of food and drinks up to 200 liters of water.

Elephants They adore water and never miss an opportunity to swim and splash around in ponds. They swim beautifully, surprisingly leaving only the very tip above the water. trunk and forehead.

Roar elephant is a piercing and shrill sound that simultaneously resembles the squeal of car brakes and a hoarse huge horn.

Elephants– the animals are very polite. When they see each other, they, like people, always say hello, only they do it according to their own special ritual, which consists of intertwining trunks with each other, and at the same time they trumpet loudly.

Like little children holding their mother’s hand, so baby elephants in the first years of life they go for elephant - mother holding her tail with her proboscis.

In addition to its enormous size, elephant, amazes and surprises him trunk

Functional tasks trunk.

What kind of organ is this? What is it for? elephant? How was it formed? And in general trunk- is it a changed upper lip, nose or hand? How to answer all these questions?

Elephants trunk perform many actions. They are dialing in trunk water, water themselves and each other with this water; take food with trunk; pluck leaves and branches; trumpets; They clap and stroke each other and even know how to draw with them.

But how could it appear elephant such an amazing organ?

And it was all like that.

And it was all like this: long ago, millions of years ago, distant ancestors roamed the earth elephants. Instead of trunk they had a slightly elongated fused nose and upper lip. Such a nose - a lip elephants grabbed tasty branches from the trees. Some of the animals had a nose-lip that was at least a little longer, and that one got more food. These animals grew strong and hardy. But in nature, the fittest survives. This is how they survived elephant-like, whose nose-lip was at least a little longer than the rest. Cubs born into the world with more than long noses-lips, than their brothers, life was easier. And their cubs’ cubs also had an easier life. So from generation to generation animals appeared, at least not by much, but with longer and longer noses - lips.

Centuries passed. And nature sifted out, selected from all animals the hardiest, most adapted to the difficulties of life, including elephants with long noses. Thanks to this natural selection, the nose-lip turned first into a short nose, and then into a real one. trunk. On the tip trunk at first it turned out something like a finger, with which elephant can even pick up a blade of grass from the ground. Once - and elephant I picked a bunch of grass for them, two - a green twig, a tasty fruit, three - I splashed them with water on a hot day, like from a hose, four - I sprinkled sand on my sides. The elephant even learned to blow his trunk.

Conclusion.

In the evolution of the squad proboscidea a certain trend can be noticed. From the Eocene Meriteria (1) through Oligocene fayumia (2, Miocene homotherium (3) and tetralophodon (4) to the Pliocene Stegodon (5) and modern elephant(6) there is an increase in size, complication of teeth, transformation of incisors into tusks and development trunk from a fused nose and upper lip.

Evolution series proboscidea, shown in the figure, is collected from representatives of different evolutionary lines and has only comparative anatomical significance.

I hugged the globe.

One over land and water

Continents are in my hands

They whisper to me quietly "take care"

After all, animals, birds, ants

We are all children of the same potion!

Publications on the topic:

Sensory development serves as the basis for understanding the world. It is aimed at developing in children a full-fledged perception of the surrounding reality.

Summary of an open lesson on application in the second junior group “Vitamins for the elephant” Plan - outline open class on artistic and aesthetic development (application) in the second younger group Topic of the lesson: “Vitamins.

Summary of a lesson on the formation of elementary mathematical concepts “Elephant's Birthday” in the preparatory group Summary of the lesson on the formation of elementary mathematical representations using non-traditional methods of art activities on the topic “Day.

Short-term project “Where the bread came from” Project “Where the bread came from” Project author T. B. Sheerman, 2016 Project type: information and research. Duration.

It is a flexible muscular extension of the upper lip and nose. African forest and savannah elephants have trunks that end in two finger-like projections; on the trunk asian elephant there is only one such process. The elephant's trunk performs many functions that are necessary to maintain vital important processes animal, protection from predators and communication in the herd.

The main functions of an elephant trunk and their brief characteristics are listed below:

Helps you eat and drink

All species of elephants use their trunks to grab leaves on tree branches and tear grass out of the soil, then move food into their mouths. Like food, the elephant squirts water into its mouth using its trunk.

Cools the body

During periods of extreme heat, elephants draw water from rivers into their trunks and pour it over their bodies. The trunk of an adult elephant is capable of sucking up to 40 liters of water in one minute and holding up to 9 liters at a time!

Protects from insects and sun

African elephants also use their trunks to take a dust shower, which helps repel insects and protects them from the sun's harmful rays (temperatures in their habitat often exceed 35ºC). To give yourself a dust shower, African elephant sucks dust into its trunk, then bends it over its head and releases the dust onto itself (Fortunately, this dust does not cause sneezing in animals).

Captures odors

In addition to being used for eating, drinking and dusting, the elephant's trunk is a unique structure that plays a fundamental role in the olfactory system of these animals. Elephants turn their trunks to different directions to better capture odors. Scientists believe that elephants can smell water from several kilometers away.

Allows you to breathe underwater

When they swim (which happens very rarely), elephants raise their trunks above the surface of the water, like a breathing tube. These animals are the only ones capable of crossing deep bodies of water in this way.

Feels vibrations

An elephant's trunk is extremely sensitive and it can sense the movement of herds of animals or thunder from a long distance.

Excellent maneuverability

It is a boneless muscular structure containing more than 100,000 muscles. This is a sensitive and quite dexterous part of the body, so elephants can collect and distinguish objects different sizes, and in some cases even fight off predators. An elephant's trunk is so strong that it can lift objects weighing about 350 kg. With the help of finger-like processes, this animal is also able to deftly pick up blades of grass or even hold a brush for painting.

For communication

Not only is the trunk used for breathing (and smelling, drinking and feeding), it is also important for communication with other members of the herd, including greetings and petting. The relationship between a mother female and her offspring is protective and calming. Mothers and other members of the herd pet their young in different ways. They may wrap their trunk around the baby elephant's back leg, belly, shoulder and neck, and often touch its mouth. A gentle rumbling sound often accompanies an affectionate gesture.

The elephant's trunk appeared in the process of evolution

This part of the elephant's body gradually evolved over tens of millions of years as the ancestors of modern elephants adapted to the changing demands of their animals. The earliest identified ancestors of elephants, such as Phosphaterium, 50 million years ago, did not have any trunks; but as competition for the leaves of trees and shrubs increased, the animals were forced