Where does a baby elephant get its long trunk from? Wildlife: why does an elephant need a trunk? So we figured it out

• Why does the elephant a long nose? I think everyone asked this question.
• Here is how children answer this question: An elephant’s paws are thick and clumsy. Will they be able to pick a delicious banana from a palm tree or brush off annoying insects? So wise nature gave the elephant a trunk, which serves not only as its nose, but also as its “hand.” The elephant collects water with its trunk and pours it into its mouth. It also puts food into the mouth. If you want to take a shower, you again cannot do without a trunk. An elephant's trunk is strong and flexible and can become a formidable weapon in case of danger.
• There are many legends about this occasion.
• Once upon a time, there lived one Khan. He had the longest nose in the world.

Every time Khan had a child, he would come up to him, look at his nose and, sighing sadly, say: “A short one again.” All the inhabitants of the planet had a normal length nose, even the heirs of Khan. Khan was very upset by this. And then one day an interesting thought occurred to him.

• He ordered to bring himself big inhabitant planets and stretch his nose. The servants searched for a long time and finally found... It turned out to be an elephant. They pulled the elephant's nose for so long that it became seven times longer than their master's nose. When Khan saw this elephant, he could not help but be delighted.

Now I'm not the only one with a long nose! Ha ha ha!

• Contrary to Khan's offspring, the elephant's descendants, from then on, were only born with long noses.

An elephant's nose is called a trunk. The trunk is a long flexible process formed by the nose and upper lip. U African elephant the trunk ends in 2 processes, dorsal and ventral. The usual length of the trunk is about 1.5 m, weight - 135 kg. Thanks to complex system The muscles and tendons of the trunk have great mobility and strength. With its help, an elephant is able to both pick up a small object and lift a load weighing 250-275 kg. An elephant's trunk can hold 7.5 liters of water. But small elephants do not know how to use this “appendage” and sometimes even step on it. It takes a lot of time to learn how to master it. This activity is undertaken by female elephants, who teach the kids the skill for several months. Moreover, they do not leave their children for many years - such a strong mother’s love!

• The trunk has many muscles - about 40,000. Therefore, this organ is very strong and flexible. So an elephant can use its trunk as a very effective weapon. The tip of the trunk, like the fingers, is so sensitive that it can feel a barely noticeable touch.
• Species-specific anatomical feature respiratory system elephant is the presence of a trunk. This organ is used by animals for breathing, eating, water, communication, tactile sensations and much more. On the ground, elephants breathe through both their mouth and trunk. When in water, into which they are often completely submerged, elephants breathe with their trunks extended outward. An elephant carries out 4-6 breathing movements per minute. The trunk, as noted above, consists of 40,000 muscle fibers, due to which it is extremely mobile, can bend in all directions, lengthen, shorten in accordance with the requirements of the environment. With the help of its trunk, an elephant can lift very heavy objects and deliver water into the oral cavity, gaining up to 17 liters at once! Then he places the end of the trunk in his mouth and releases water into his throat. In addition, elephants, by inserting their trunk into their throats, can draw water from their stomach and then pour it on themselves or on their cubs to cool down.
• The trunk also serves elephants for communication, courtship and childcare, but can also become a formidable weapon in battle. An elephant that has lost its trunk is doomed to starvation. The only time an elephant doesn't need its trunk when eating is early childhood: The baby elephant sucks mother's milk directly with his mouth. An elephant's sense of smell is very subtle; it can smell a person more than 1.5 km away. An elephant carries out 4-6 breathing movements per minute.
• There is the following fact about the appearance of the trunk in elephants: In 1993, due to the production of South Africa After the shooting of elephants (this is a separate sad topic), 6 embryos aged from 58 to 166 days fell into the hands of scientists. Their research revealed that the elephant is a former marine mammal (similar to sea ​​cows), which returned to land again 30 million years ago. That he initially used his trunk as a breathing pipe. Then it is clear what caused the trunk to lengthen over time. It is also clear why the elephant needed large ears-fins. Well, what about the size? Normal for a marine animal. Weight is no longer a problem when the water is pushed out. By the way, Indian elephant and now he uses his trunk in this way, swimming with a log across the river. He cannot breathe through his mouth due to his short neck.

How did you come to all this?

• Nephrostomes were found in all elephant embryos. As I understand it, these are some kind of renal channels that are found only in freshwater fish, frogs and oviparous reptiles and mammals (echidna, platypus). Ordinary mammals do not have them.
• The embryo's trunk, as it turned out, develops much earlier than one might have expected, which also fits into its marine origin.

Subsequent comparisons of elephants based on DNA, biochemical analyzes and immune systems with marine mammals, showed their amazing closeness to sea cows.

• How interesting it is and how bizarre the world is. Once upon a time, all living things lived in water. Then the living creatures began to crawl onto land. Mammals appeared. Some of them (whales, dolphins) returned to the seas and oceans. It would seem, where next? But no, there were repatriates who returned to land again. A carousel of evolution, and that’s all.

Many, many years ago, my beloved, the elephant did not have a trunk - only a blackish thick nose, the size of a boot; True, the elephant could turn it from side to side, but did not lift any things with it. At the same time, there lived a very young elephant, a baby elephant. He was terribly curious, and therefore always asked everyone various questions. He lived in Africa, and no one in this vast country could satisfy his curiosity. One day he asked his tall uncle ostrich why the most best feathers grow on his tail, and instead of answering, the ostrich hit him with its strong paw. The baby elephant asked his tall aunt giraffe where the spots on her skin came from, and this baby elephant aunt kicked him with her hard, hard hoof. And yet the young elephant continued to be curious. He asked the fat hippopotamus why her eyes were so red, and she hit him with her thick, very thick leg; then he asked his hairy uncle baboon why melons taste like melons, and hairy uncle baboon spanked him with his hairy, hairy paw. Still, the elephant was filled with insatiable curiosity. He asked about everything he saw, heard, smelled, touched or smelled, and all the uncles and aunts of the elephant-child only pushed and beat him; nevertheless, an insatiable curiosity was seething within him.

One fine morning, as the equinox was approaching, a curious child elephant asked new question, which I had never asked before. He asked, “What do they give a crocodile for lunch?” And everyone said: “Shh!” - in a loud and dangerous whisper, then they began to beat him and for a long time Everyone was beating and beating.

Finally, when the punishment was over, the elephant child saw the bell bird; she was sitting in the middle of a thorn bush, which seemed to say: “Wait, wait.” And the elephant said: “My father beat me; my mother beat me; my aunts and uncles beat me, all because I was so insatiably curious, but I still want to know what the crocodile eats for dinner?”

The bell bird cried sadly and said:

Go to the shores of the great grayish-green quiet river Limpopo, bordered by trees that make you sick with fever, and then you will know.

The very next morning, when there was no trace left of the equinox, the curious elephant child, taking a hundred pounds of bananas (small, short and yellow), a thousand pounds of sugar cane stalks (long, purple), seventeen melons (green, fragile), said to all my dear relatives:

Farewell, I go to the grey-green swampy Limpopo River, shaded by feverish trees, and see what the crocodile has for lunch.

All his relatives beat him just for luck, and they beat him for a long time, although he very politely asked them to stop.

Finally, the baby elephant left; he was a little hot, but he was not surprised, he ate melons and threw away the peels; after all, he could not lift them from the ground.

He walked from the city of Gregham to Kimberley, from Kimberley to the Kama region, from the Kama region he headed north and west and ate melons all the time; Finally, the baby elephant came to the bank of the large gray-green swampy Limpopo River, shaded by trees that smell of fever. Here everything was as the bell bird said.

Now, my beloved, you must find out and understand that until this very week, until this very day, hour, even until the last minute, the curious elephant child had never seen a crocodile and did not even know what it looked like. That's why he was so curious to look at this creature.

First of all, he saw a two-colored rock python; this huge snake lay, surrounding the stone with its rings.

Sorry for disturbing you,” the baby elephant said very politely, “but please answer me, have you seen anything like a crocodile somewhere in the vicinity?”

Did I see a crocodile? - answered the two-colored rock python in a contemptuous and angry voice. - Well, what else do you ask?

Excuse me,” continued the elephant child, “but can you kindly tell me what he eats for lunch?”

The two-colored rock python quickly turned around and hit the elephant with its scaly, whip-like tail.

What a strange thing,” said the elephant child, “my father and my mother, my uncle and aunt, not to mention my other aunt, the hippopotamus, and my other uncle, the baboon, beat me and kicked me for my insatiable curiosity, and now , it seems the same thing is starting again.

He very politely said goodbye to the two-colored rock python, helped him wrap his body around the rock and left; the elephant felt hot, but he did not feel tired; I ate melons and threw away the peels because I couldn’t pick them up from the ground. And then the baby elephant stepped on something, as it seemed to him, on a log that lay on the very bank of the large gray-green swampy Limpopo River, overgrown with trees that smell of fever.

And this was the crocodile, my beloved, and this crocodile winked with one eye.

Excuse me,” the baby elephant said very politely, “but have you seen a crocodile somewhere nearby?”

The crocodile winked with his other eye, raising his tail from the mud; The baby elephant politely stepped back; he didn't want to be beaten.

“Come here, baby,” said the crocodile. - Why do you ask?

I beg your pardon,” the elephant child answered very politely, “but my father beat me; my mother beat me, in a word, everyone beat me, not to mention my tall uncle the ostrich and my tall aunt the giraffe, who kick cruelly; not to mention my fat aunt, the hippopotamus, and my hairy uncle, the baboon, and including the two-colored rock python with its scaly, whip-like tail, which hits harder than all the others; So, if you don’t really want it, I ask you not to whip me with your tail.

“Come here, baby,” the crocodile drawled, “the fact is that I’m a crocodile.” - And to prove that he was telling the truth, the crocodile began to cry crocodile tears.

The baby elephant stopped breathing in surprise; then, gasping for breath, he knelt on the shore and said:

It was you that I was looking for all these long, long days. Would you mind telling me what you eat for lunch?

“Come closer, baby,” said the crocodile. - And I'll whisper it in your ear.

The baby elephant moved his head to the crocodile's toothy mouth, and the crocodile grabbed the baby elephant by his short nose, which until that very week, until that day, hour and until that minute was no bigger than a boot, although much more useful than any shoe.

It seems,” said the crocodile (he said it through his teeth), “it seems that today I will start dinner with a baby elephant.”

Hearing this, my beloved, the elephant felt annoyed and said through his nose:

Let me go! It hurts me!

Tales of Kipling R. D. - Elephant Child (Elephant)
This is a baby elephant; the crocodile pulls his nose. The elephant is very surprised and amazed, and he is also in great pain, and he says through his nose: “Let me go, it hurts!” He tries his best to pull his nose out of the crocodile's mouth; the crocodile drags the elephant in the other direction. A two-colored rock python swims to the aid of a baby elephant. Black stripes and spots are the banks of the large gray-green quiet Limpopo River (I was not allowed to color the pictures), and the trees with curved roots and eight leaves are exactly the trees that give off fever.

Below this picture are the shadows of African animals going to the African Noah's Ark. There are two lions, two ostriches, two bulls, two camels, two sheep and many pairs of other animals that live among the rocks. All these animals mean nothing. I drew them because they seemed pretty to me; and if I were allowed to color them, they would become downright lovely.

At that moment, a two-colored rock python descended from the shore and said:

My young friend, if you don't pull your nose as hard as you can right now, I believe your new acquaintance, covered with patent skin (he meant "crocodile"), will drag you into the depths of this transparent stream before you can say: "Jack Robinson."

This is exactly what the two-colored rock pythons always say.

The baby elephant listened to the rock python; he sat down on his hind legs and began to pull his nose out of the crocodile’s mouth; he kept tugging and tugging, and the baby elephant’s nose began to stretch out. The crocodile fussed and beat the water with its large tail, so that it foamed; at the same time he was pulling the elephant by the nose.

The baby elephant's nose continued to stretch out; The elephant spread out all four of its legs and kept pulling its nose out of the crocodile's mouth, and its nose became longer and longer. The crocodile moved its tail through the water like an oar, and kept pulling and pulling the elephant by the nose; and every time he pulls this spout, it becomes longer. The elephant was in terrible pain.

Suddenly the baby elephant felt that his legs were slipping; he rode them along the bottom; Finally, speaking through his nose, which was now almost five feet long, the baby elephant said: “I’ve had enough!”

The two-colored rock python descended into the water, wrapped itself around the elephant’s hind legs as if with two loops of rope and said:

Unwise and inexperienced traveler, from now on we will seriously devote ourselves to important matter, we will try to pull your nose with all our might, since it seems to me that this self-propelled warship with armor on the upper deck (in these words, my beloved, it meant a crocodile) will interfere with your further movements.

All two-colored rock pythons always speak in such confusing terms.

A two-colored python was pulling an elephant; the baby elephant pulled his nose; the crocodile also pulled it; but the baby elephant and the two-colored rock python pulled harder than the crocodile, and he finally released the baby elephant's nose, with such a splash of water that the splash could be heard along the entire length of the Limpopo River, up and down the stream.

At the same time, the baby elephant suddenly sat down, or rather, splashed into the water, but not before saying to the python: “Thank you!” Then he took care of his poor nose, which had been pulled for so long, wrapped it in fresh banana leaves and lowered it into the water of the large gray-green quiet Limpopo River.

Why are you doing it? - the two-colored rock python asked him.

I beg your pardon,” replied the baby elephant, “but my nose has completely lost its shape, and I am waiting for it to shrink and shrink.”

“You’ll have to wait a long time,” said the two-colored rock python. - Still, I note that many do not understand their benefits.

For three days the baby elephant sat and waited for its nose to shrink. But this nose was not made shorter; in addition, he had to cruelly squint his eyes. My beloved, you will understand that the crocodile stretched the elephant’s nose into a real trunk, like the ones you see now on all elephants.

Tales of Kipling R. D. - Elephant Child (Elephant) 2
Here is a picture of a baby elephant just as he is about to pick bananas from the top of a banana tree with his beautiful new long trunk. I don't think this picture is good, but I couldn't draw it better because drawing elephants and bananas is very, very difficult. Behind the baby elephant you see blackness, and along it there are stripes; I wanted to depict a marshy swampy area somewhere in Africa. The elephant child made most of his cakes from silt, which he got from these swamps. It seems to me that the picture will become much more beautiful if you paint the banana tree with green paint and the elephant with red paint.

On the third day, a tsetse fly flew in and bit the elephant on the shoulder. The elephant, not understanding what he was doing, raised his trunk and killed the fly with its end.

Benefit number one, said the two-colored rock python. - You couldn't do that with your short nose. Well, now try to eat.

Before he even had time to think what he was doing, the baby elephant stretched out his trunk, plucked a large bunch of grass, beat these green stems on his front legs to throw off the dust from them, and finally put them into his mouth.

Benefit number two, said the two-colored rock python. - You couldn't do that with your short nose. Do you think the sun is too hot?

Yes, - the elephant-child agreed and, before he even had time to think about what he was doing, he scooped up silt from the grey-green swampy Limpopo River and smeared it on his head; the mud made a cool mud hat; water flowed from it behind the ears of the baby elephant.

Benefit number three, said the two-colored rock python. “You couldn’t do that with your old short nose.” Well, what can you say about the beaters they treated you to? Will the same thing start again?

“I beg your pardon,” said the elephant-child, “I don’t want this at all.”

Wouldn't it be nice for you to beat someone up? - the two-color rock python asked the elephant.

“I would really like this,” answered the elephant child.

Well,” said the two-colored rock python, “you will see that your new nose will be useful when you decide to beat someone with it.”

“Thank you,” said the elephant child, “I will remember this, and now I will go home to my dear relatives and see what happens next.”

The baby elephant actually went to his home through Africa; he waved and twirled his trunk. When he wanted to eat fruits from the trees, he took them from high branches; he did not have to wait, as before, for these fruits to fall to the ground. When he wanted grass, he tore it from the ground and did not have to kneel down, as he had done in the past. When flies bit him, he tore a branch from a tree and turned it into a fan; when the sun burned his head, he made himself a new, cool, wet hat from silt or clay. When he got bored, he sang, or rather, blew a trumpet through his trunk, and this song sounded louder than the music of several brass bands. He deliberately made a detour to see a fat hippopotamus (she was not related to him), and beat her hard with his trunk to see if the two-colored rock python was telling the truth. For the rest of the time, he picked up melon peels from the ground, which he had thrown along the road to Limpopo. He did this because he was a very neat animal from the pachyderm family.

One dark evening the child elephant returned to his dear relatives, curled his trunk into a ring and said:

How are you?

They were all very glad to see him and immediately said:

Come closer, we'll spank you for your insatiable curiosity.

Bah,” said the elephant child, “I don’t think any of you know how to fight; I know how to hit and now I’ll teach you how to do it.

Then he straightened his trunk and hit two of his dear relatives so hard that they went head over heels.

Miracles, they said, where did you learn such a thing? And pray tell, what did you do with your nose?

“The crocodile gave me a new nose, and it happened on the banks of the large gray-green swampy Limpopo River,” answered the baby elephant. “I asked him what he had for lunch, and he pulled my nose out for it.”

What a disgrace! - remarked the baboon, the elephant’s hairy uncle.

“He’s ugly,” said the elephant child, “but he’s very comfortable,” and, saying this, the baby elephant grabbed one of his hairy uncle’s legs with his trunk, lifted him and put him in a wasp’s nest.

After this, the bad little elephant beat all his dear relatives for a long time, beat them until they became very hot. They were completely surprised. The baby elephant tugged his tall uncle, the ostrich, by his tail feathers; caught his tall aunt giraffe by her hind leg and dragged her through a thorny bush; when his fat aunt, the hippopotamus, having eaten, was resting in the water, he put his trunk right next to her ear, shouted two or three words to her, at the same time releasing several bubbles through the water. But neither at this time, nor later, did he ever allow anyone to offend the bell bird.

Finally, all the cute relatives of the baby elephant began to be so worried that one after another they ran to the banks of the large grey-green swampy Limpopo River, shaded by trees that smell of fever; each of them wanted to get a new nose from the crocodile. When they returned home, they no longer hit each other; The uncles and aunties did not touch the baby elephant either. From this day on, my beloved, all the elephants you see, and all the ones you don’t see, have very long trunks, just like the one that appeared on the curious baby elephant.

It’s only now, my dear boy, that the Elephant has a trunk. And before, a long time ago, the Elephant did not have any trunk. There was only a nose, sort of like a cake, black and the size of a shoe. This nose dangled in all directions, but still was no good: is it possible to pick up anything from the ground with such a nose?

But at that very time, a long time ago, there lived one such Elephant, or, better to say, a Baby Elephant, who was terribly curious, and whoever he saw, pestered everyone with questions. He lived in Africa, and he pestered all of Africa with questions.

He pestered the Ostrich, his lanky aunt, and asked her why the feathers on her tail grew this way and not that way, and the lanky aunt Ostrich gave him a blow with her hard, very hard foot. He pestered his long-legged uncle Giraffe and asked him why he had spots on his skin, and long-legged uncle Giraffe gave him a blow with his hard, very hard hoof.

And he asked his fat aunt Behemoth why her eyes were so red, and fat aunt Behemoth gave him a blow with her thick, very thick hoof.

But this did not discourage his curiosity.

He asked his hairy uncle Baboon why all melons were so sweet, and hairy uncle Baboon gave him a blow with his furry, hairy paw.

But this did not discourage his curiosity.

Whatever he saw, whatever he heard, whatever he smelled, whatever he touched, he immediately asked about everything and immediately received blows from all his uncles and aunts.

But this did not discourage his curiosity.

And it so happened that one fine morning, shortly before the equinox, this same Elephant's Child - annoying and pestering - asked about one thing that he had never asked about before. He asked:

— What does the Crocodile eat for lunch?

Everyone screamed loudly and frightenedly:

- Shhhhh!

And immediately, without further words, they began to rain blows on him.

They beat him for a long time, without a break, but when they finished beating him, he immediately ran up to the Kolokolo bird, sitting in the thorny bushes, and said:

“My father beat me, and my mother beat me, and all my aunts beat me, and all my uncles beat me for my intolerable curiosity, and yet I would really like to know what the Crocodile eats for dinner?”

And the Kolokolo bird said in a sad and loud voice:

- Go to the shore of the sleepy, fetid, muddy green Limpopo River; Its banks are covered with trees, which make everyone feel feverish. There you will find out everything.

The next morning, when there was nothing left of the equinox, this curious Baby Elephant gained bananas - a whole hundred pounds! - and sugar cane - also a hundred pounds! - and seventeen greenish melons, the kind that crunch in your teeth, he heaped it all onto his shoulders and, wishing his dear relatives to stay happily, set off on his way.

- Goodbye! - he told them. — I’m going to the sleepy, fetid, muddy green Limpopo River; its banks are covered with trees that make everyone feverish, and there I will find out at all costs what the Crocodile eats for lunch.

And his relatives once again gave him a good time at parting, although he extremely politely asked them not to worry.

And he left them, slightly shabby, but not very surprised. He ate melons along the way, and threw the peels on the ground, since he had nothing with which to pick up these peels. From the city of Graham he went to Kimberley, from Kimberley to Ham's land, from Ham's land east and north, and all the way he treated himself to melons, until finally he came to the sleepy, fetid, dull green Limpopo River, surrounded by just such trees, oh which the Kolokolo bird told him.

And you need to know, my dear boy, that until that very week, until that very day, until that very hour, until that very minute, our curious Little Elephant had never seen a Crocodile and did not even know what it was. Imagine his curiosity!

The first thing that caught his eye was the Bicolor Python, the Rock Snake, coiled around some rock.

- Excuse me, please! - said the Baby Elephant extremely politely. —Have you met a Crocodile somewhere nearby? It's so easy to get lost here!

-Have I ever met a Crocodile? — Contemptuously asked the Bicolor Python, the Rocky Snake. - I found something to ask about!

- Excuse me, please! - continued the Baby Elephant. -Can you tell me what the Crocodile eats for lunch?

Here the Two-Color Python, the Rocky Snake, could no longer hold on, quickly turned around and gave the Elephant a blow with his huge tail. And his tail was like a threshing flail and covered with scales.

- These are miracles! - said the Baby Elephant. “Not only did my father beat me, and my mother beat me, and my uncle beat me, and my other uncle, Baboon, beat me, and my aunt beat me, and my other aunt, Hippopotamus, beat me, and that’s all.” as they beat me for my terrible curiosity - here, as I see, the same story begins.

And he very politely said goodbye to the Two-Colored Python, the Rocky Snake, helped him wrap himself around the rock again and went on his way; he was beaten quite a bit, but he was not very surprised by this, but again took up the melons and again threw the peels on the ground - because, I repeat, what would he use to pick them up? - and soon came across some kind of log lying near the very bank of the sleepy, fetid, muddy green Limpopo River, surrounded by trees that made everyone feel feverish.

But in fact, my dear boy, it was not a log, it was a Crocodile. And the Crocodile winked with one eye - like that!

- Excuse me, please! - the Baby Elephant addressed him extremely politely. “Did you happen to meet a Crocodile somewhere nearby in these parts?”

The crocodile winked with his other eye and stuck his tail half out of the water. The little elephant (again, very politely!) stepped back because he did not want to get another blow.

- Come here, my baby! - said the Crocodile. - Actually, why do you need this?

- Excuse me, please! - said the Baby Elephant extremely politely. - My father beat me, and my mother beat me, my lanky aunt Ostrich beat me, and my long-legged uncle Giraffe beat me, my other aunt, the fat Hippopotamus, beat me, and my other uncle, the furry Baboon, beat me, and Python Two-colored, the Rocky Snake, just hit me very, very painfully, and now - don’t tell me in anger - I wouldn’t want to be hit again.

“Come here, my baby,” said the Crocodile, “because I am the Crocodile.”

And he began to shed crocodile tears to show that he really was a Crocodile.

The little elephant was terribly happy. He took his breath away, fell to his knees and shouted:

- It’s you that I need! I've been looking for you for so many days! Please tell me quickly, what do you eat for lunch?

“Come closer, I’ll whisper in your ear.”

The baby elephant bent his head close to the toothy, fanged mouth of the crocodile, and the Crocodile grabbed him by the small nose, which until this very week, until this very day, until this very hour, until this very minute, was no more than a shoe.

“It seems to me,” said the Crocodile, and said through his teeth, like this, “it seems to me that today I will have a Baby Elephant for the first course.”

The little elephant, my dear boy, did not like this terribly, and he said through his nose:

- Pusdide badya, bde ocher boldo! (Let me go, it hurts me a lot!)

Then the Bicolor Python, the Rocky Serpent, approached him and said:

- If you, oh my young friend, do not immediately pull back as long as your strength is enough, then my opinion is that you will not have time to say “one, two, three!”, as a result of your conversation with this leather bag (so he called the Crocodile) you will end up there, in that transparent water stream...

Bi-colored Pythons, Rock Snakes, always talk like this.

The baby elephant sat on its hind legs and began to pull back. He pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and his nose began to stretch out. And the Crocodile retreated further into the water, frothed it like whipped cream with heavy blows of its tail, and also pulled, and pulled, and pulled.

And the Baby Elephant’s nose stretched out, and the Baby Elephant spread out all four legs, such tiny elephant legs, and pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and his nose kept stretching out. And the Crocodile struck with his tail like an oar, and also pulled, and pulled, and the more he pulled, the longer the Baby Elephant’s nose stretched out, and that nose hurt terribly!

And suddenly the Baby Elephant felt that his legs were sliding on the ground, and he cried out through his nose, which became almost five feet long:

- Dovoldo! Osdavde! I'm more de God! (Enough! Leave it! I can't take it anymore!)

Hearing this, the Bicolor Python, the Rock Snake, rushed down the cliff, wrapped a double knot around the hind legs of the Elephant Child and said:

- O inexperienced and frivolous traveler! We must push as hard as possible, because my impression is that this warship with a live propeller and an armored deck (that’s what he called the Crocodile) wants to ruin your future...

Bi-colored Pythons, Rock Snakes, always express themselves this way.

And so the Snake pulls, the Baby Elephant pulls, but the Crocodile also pulls. He pulls and pulls, but since the Baby Elephant and the Bicolor Python, the Rock Snake, pull harder, the Crocodile eventually has to let go of the Baby Elephant's nose, and the Crocodile flies back with such a splash that it can be heard throughout the entire Limpopo.

And the Baby Elephant stood and sat down and hit himself very painfully, but still managed to say thank you to the Two-Color Python, the Rocky Snake, and then began to take care of his elongated nose: he wrapped it in coldish banana leaves and lowered it into the water of a sleepy, muddy green river Limpopo to cool it down a little.

- Why are you doing this? - said the Bicolor Python, the Rock Snake.

- Excuse me, please! - said the Baby Elephant. “My nose has lost its former appearance, and I’m waiting for it to become short again.”

“You’ll have to wait a long time,” said the Two-Color Python, the Rocky Snake. - That is, it is amazing how much others do not understand their own benefit!

The baby elephant sat above the water for three days and kept waiting to see if his nose would become shorter. However, the nose did not become shorter, and what’s more, because of this nose, the Elephant’s eyes became a little slanted.

Because, my dear boy, I hope you have already guessed that the Crocodile stretched the Baby Elephant’s nose into a real trunk - exactly the same as all modern Elephants have.

Towards the end of the third day, some fly flew in and stung the Elephant’s shoulder, and he, without noticing what he was doing, raised his trunk and swatted the fly.

- Here's your first benefit! - said the Bicolor Python, the Rock Snake. “Well, judge for yourself: could you do something like that with your old pin nose?” By the way, would you like to have a snack?

And the Baby Elephant, not knowing how he did it, reached out with his trunk to the ground, plucked a good bunch of grass, slammed it on his front legs to shake off the dust, and immediately put it in his mouth.

- Here's your second benefit! - said the Bicolor Python, the Rock Snake. “You should try to do this with your old pin nose!” By the way, have you noticed that the sun has become too hot?

- Perhaps so! - said the Baby Elephant.

And, not knowing how he did it, he scooped up some silt with his trunk from the sleepy, stinking, muddy green Limpopo River and plopped it on his head; The wet silt crumbled into a cake, and whole streams of water flowed behind the Elephant’s ears.

- Here's your third benefit! - said the Bicolor Python, the Rock Snake. “You should try to do this with your old pin nose!” And by the way, what do you think about cuffs now?

“Excuse me, please,” said the Elephant’s Child, “but I really don’t like cuffs.”

- What about blowing up someone else? - said the Bicolor Python, the Rock Snake.

- It’s my pleasure! - said the Baby Elephant.

“You don’t know your nose yet!” - said the Bicolor Python, the Rock Snake. “It’s just a treasure, not a nose.” It will blow anyone up.

“Thank you,” said the Baby Elephant, “I will take this into account.” And now it's time for me to go home. I'll go to my dear relatives and have my nose checked.

And the Baby Elephant walked across Africa, amusingly and waving his trunk.

If he wants fruit, he picks it straight from the tree, and does not stand and wait, as before, for it to fall to the ground. If he wants grass, he tears it right from the ground, and doesn’t fall on his knees, as he used to do. The flies bother him - he picks a branch from a tree and waves it like a fan. The sun is hot - he lowers his trunk into the river, and there is a cold, wet patch on his head. It's boring for him to wander around Africa alone - he plays songs with his trunk, and his trunk is much louder than a hundred copper pipes.

He deliberately turned off the road to find the fat Hippopotamus (she was not even his relative), give her a good beating and check whether the Two-Colored Python, the Rocky Snake, told him the truth about his new nose. Having beaten the Hippopotamus, he went along the same road and picked up from the ground those melon peels that he had scattered along the way to Limpopo - because he was a Clean Pachyderm.

It had already become dark when one fine evening he came home to his dear relatives. He curled his trunk into a ring and said:

- Hello! How are you doing?

They were terribly happy with him and immediately said with one voice:

- Come here, come here, we will give you a blow for your intolerable curiosity!

- Oh, you! - said the Baby Elephant. - You know a lot about punches! Now I understand something about this matter. Do you want me to show you?

And he turned his trunk, and immediately his two Dear Brothers flew upside down from him.

- We swear by bananas! - they shouted. “Where did you get so alert and what’s wrong with your nose?”

“I have this new nose, and the Crocodile gave it to me on the sleepy, fetid, muddy green Limpopo River,” said the Baby Elephant. “I started a conversation with him about what he eats for lunch, and he gave me a new nose as a souvenir.

- Ugly nose! - said the hairy, furry uncle Baboon.

“Perhaps,” said the Baby Elephant. - But useful!

And he grabbed hairy uncle Baboon by the hairy leg and, swinging it, threw it into the wasp's nest.

And this angry little Elephant got so angry that he beat off every last one of his dear relatives. He beat them and beat them until they became hot, and they looked at him in amazement. He pulled out almost all of her feathers from the tail of the lanky aunt Ostrich; he grabbed the long-legged Uncle Giraffe by the hind leg and dragged him along the thorny bushes; he woke up his fat aunt Hippopotamus with a loud cry when she was sleeping after lunch, and began to blow bubbles directly into her ear, but did not allow anyone to offend the Kolokolo bird.

It got to the point that all his relatives - some earlier, some later - went to the sleepy, fetid, muddy green Limpopo River, surrounded by trees that gave everyone fever, so that the Crocodile would give them the same nose.

Having returned, no one gave blows to anyone anymore, and from then on, my boy, all the Elephants you will ever see, and even those you will never see, all have exactly the same trunk as this one curious baby elephant.

Elephants. The creatures are kind and peaceful. How are they different from other animals? The first thing that comes to mind is, of course, their trunk. This process is located in elephants right between the upper lip and nose. The average length of an elephant trunk is approximately one and a half meters, and the average weight is 120-150 kg.

There are more than 50,000 muscles in the elephant's trunk, and at its tip are the nasal openings. Why does the elephant long trunk and why does the elephant need it? With the help of the trunk, the animal obtains food for itself, picks up various objects, and, of course, it is this organ that is responsible for the elephant’s sense of smell.

Interesting fact. An elephant can collect 6-7 liters of water in its trunk for drinking, or to give itself an invigorating shower.

Elephants not only lift heavy objects into the air with their trunks. They also pick fruits from trees. A trunk is for an elephant as hands are for a person; it is just as irreplaceable.

More interesting fact about elephants. They can talk to each other using, as paradoxical as it may sound, their own belly! Previously, scientists assumed that these sounds were associated only with digestion.

It was subsequently discovered that elephants are able to control these sounds. If danger arises, the elephants immediately become silent. The danger has passed - and now, you can continue to “talk” with a clear conscience.

It is thanks to this skill that elephants can communicate with each other at a distance of several kilometers.

These are such wonderful animals, these elephants! Cute big creatures with huge trunk who can fall in love with absolutely anyone if in return they receive affection, kindness, warmth and, of course, care from their new comrade.

That's what you call a fairy tale English writer Kipling. It tells about a curious little elephant who pestered his relatives with the most unexpected questions. In those days, according to the fairy tale, elephants did not have trunks, but had a short nose. The curious little elephant decided to find out what the crocodile had for breakfast and went to ask him about it. The crocodile wanted to eat the baby elephant and grabbed him by the nose, and since the baby elephant rested his feet on the shore and turned out to be stronger than the crocodile, he only stretched the baby elephant’s small nose into a long trunk.

This, of course, is a fairy tale, and although the characteristics acquired by animals during life are passed on to their offspring, it took many millions of years for the elephant to develop the trunk it has now.

By studying the skulls of modern and long-extinct elephants, as well as species related to elephants, scientists were able to determine the origin of the trunk.

Judging by the excavation materials, in North Africa About 40 million years ago there lived an animal that has now received the scientific name Meriteria. It looked more like a pig than an elephant. It had a long muzzle, jaws extended forward with big amount teeth from which the two upper incisors protruded outward. And the movable tip of his nose, fused with his upper lip, hung down. Meriteria was no taller than a large donkey. The movable proboscis on its muzzle was a very convenient organ. They could pick plants and put them in the mouth.

We see a more developed trunk already in various types mastodons - the direct ancestors of the elephant. They still have a long snout and many teeth, but the upper jaw is already greatly shortened, and its fleshy lip has turned into a trunk. The incisors of mastodons disappeared, except for the two upper ones, which turned into tusks. The last mastodons were already contemporaries of the first people.

We see even greater development of the trunk in the fossil mammoth. The trunk became a powerful organ and reached such a length that mammoths, without bending down, plucked grass with it. Accordingly, the jaws were greatly shortened, and the tusks became huge and did not fit in the oral cavity.

Modern elephants have a very flexible and mobile trunk. Its development led to a further decrease in head length and number of teeth. Apart from the tusks, the elephant has no incisors, fangs have disappeared, and molars - only one on the right and left on each jaw. The surface of these teeth is ribbed, adapted for grinding tough vegetation.

Interestingly, elephants change their permanent molars three times during their lives: the old ones are replaced by new ones growing from the back of the jaw. Thanks to the length and mobility of the trunk, mammoths and elephants became massive and clumsy.

All the “work” of delivering food to the mouth fell on the trunk. Elephants have lost the ability to run fast. Yes, they don’t need to flee from predators. Having such size, trunk, tusks, they can easily defeat any opponent.