page_title: African elephant
section_title: Skin, ears, and trunk
hierarchical_section_title: African elephant / Description / Skin, ears, and trunk
caption_attribution_description: English: African Bush Elephant skull on exhibit at the Museum of Osteology, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.]]
context_page_description: The African elephant is a genus comprising two living elephant species, the African bush elephant and the smaller African forest elephant. Both are herbivores and live in groups. They have grey skin and differ in the size of their ears and tusks, and in the shape and size of their skulls.
  Both species are listed as Vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List since 2004, and are threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation. Poaching for the illegal ivory trade is a threat in several range countries as well.
  Loxodonta is one of two existing genera of the family Elephantidae. The name refers to the lozenge-shaped enamel of their molar teeth. Fossil remains of Loxodonta species have been excavated in Africa, dating to the Middle Pliocene.
context_section_description: African elephants have a grey folded and up to 30 mm (1.2 in) thick skin that is covered with sparse bristled dark-brown to black hair. Short tactile hair grows on the trunk, which has two finger-like processes on the tip. Their large ears help to reduce body heat; flapping them creates air currents and exposes the ears' inner sides where large blood vessels increase heat loss during hot weather. The trunk is a prehensile elongation of its upper lip and nose. This highly sensitive organ is innervated primarily by the trigeminal nerve, and thought to be manipulated by about 40–60,000 muscles. Because of this muscular structure, the trunk is so strong that elephants can use it for lifting about 3% of their own body weight. They use it for smelling, touching, feeding, drinking, dusting, producing sounds, loading, defending and attacking. Elephants sometimes swim underwater and use their trunks as snorkels.
caption: A male African bush elephant skull on display at the Museum of Osteology
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