No one can argue that watching a herd of elephants or even just one lone bull is fascinating – not only in terms of observing their behaviour but also admiring their unique physical features. From their sheer enormity in size, the dexterity of their trunks, the complexity of their skin, the stunning long eyelashes, the list just goes on. So while watching these majestic giants I ofter ponder over these characteristics. The other day one particular question stuck in my mind – do elephants wrinkle with age?
Zooming into the cracks and crevices covering elephants highlights the increased surface area where moisture is trapped to assist elephants in keeping cool.
It seems like a simple question since elephants are born with wrinkles they would surely just get more wrinkles with age- but there is more to this than initially meets the eye. To start off you have to consider why elephants have so many wrinkly cracks and crevices covering their body in the first place. This is a mechanism of thermoregulation (controlling one’s body temperature) that is often discussed in the heat of summer when watching elephants throw water and mud all over themselves.
Splashing away to keep cool in the heat of summer is a favourite pastime for elephants.
An elephant’s intricate network of crevices enables up to 10 times more moisture to be trapped against their bodies for longer than if their skin was smooth, and in the process aids in cooling themselves down. This is a vital adaptation to elephants, unlike most mammals, elephants do not have sweat glands (except for a few situated in their feet which don’t help much for dissipating heat). Not only does the act of throwing mud over themselves or mud bathing also enable moisture to be stored in their wrinkles, it also adds a layer of protection from the sun and wards off unwanted ectoparasites.
These two elephants are having an absolute blast while cooling off and coating themselves in mud that, in turn, remove any ectoparasites.
The next step before you can determine if an elephant wrinkles with age is determining how old the elephant actually is. This is no easy task unless the individual elephant has been seen regularly from birth, and with 3.5 million hectares for elephants to roam from Londolozi and throughout the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park, we seldom see the same herds regularly. Luckily Ranger Shaun D’Araujo has a few tips on how to estimate the age of an elephant that we can use to help us. Starting with determining the sex of the elephant, then watching their feeding behaviour as young calves, to then looking at the length and thickness of tusks in sub-adults. To the rough size of the adult elephant, the tattered/frayed edge of the ears can contribute to an estimate. Finally one can easily start to notice the sunken in temples of bulls over 30 years and cows over 50 years of age.
The sunken temples, worn-down tusks, and extra folds of skin help us to estimate the age of this bull to be approximately 35-40 years of age.
Lastly, we have to accept that animals will never wrinkle as much as humans do because we live a relatively long life compared to other species. Elephants with one of the longest lifespans usually reach around 60 years. As humans, we also don’t have hair or fur covering our bodies that will protect our skin from the sun as much as elephants do and certainly don’t throw mud over ourselves as often as elephants do. Simply put, we have more time to get wrinkly! What humans and elephants do have in common is that we both continuously develop new skin cells but unlike humans who shed dead skin cells, elephants’ dead skin cells build up over time. Their skin then thickens over time, eventually exerting enough pressure to generate cracks which then bend their outer layer of skin, creating more sags and folds and increasing the network of ‘wrinkles’ that helps them stay cool… and starts to give away their age!
So next time you see a wrinkly elephant, and perhaps wonder the same thing as I did, hopefully, this post has helped you to understand the intricacies of an elephant’s skin as something that makes them such special animals!
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Kelsey, thanks for the insight on elephants skin and wrinkles. Learning something new is always good.
I’m glad you enjoyed learning something new William.
Lovely! The wrinkles underline their knowledge of routes, way to seek for water and so on… the images of wisdom
Thanks Francesca, their wrinkles really do remind us of the incredible wisdom they have!
20+ years of travel to Africa, hundreds of game drives and many, many wonderful visits to Londolozi and I just learned several new things about Elephants – thank you Kelsey.
My pleasure Jeff. We are always learning something new out here and I’m glad to hear you are too.
Kelsey, Thanks for a great educational post on elephants. We thought we knew a lot, but you took it to another level! 🙂
Always a pleasure Michael & Terri- I’m very happy you enjoyed the blog!
Great informative post with some beautiful photographs! Thanks 🙏🏻
Thank you Marcia
Well done Kelsey … a nice description that should help us the next time we see those noble creatures!
Thank you Bob & Lucie – I hope you will be seeing lots of elephants again soon!
Thanks for the interesting article on elephant skin.
Only a pleasure Christa 🙂
Thanks Kelsey for a most interesting and informative blog! Always learning from you all at Londolozi. Being a wrinkly myself I wish I could make the excuse that I’m using those wrinkles to hydrate 😂. Sadly it’s the reverse being at sea for 40 years..but perhaps like an elephant I have many memories and tales to share. 😉
My pleasure Cally. I’m glad to hear you are always learning something new – and I’m sure you could share plenty of great stories with us too!
Kelsey,
Thank you for bringing my elephant knowledge to a new level. There is so much to learn about the animal species and it’s articles like this that really help the Londolozi audience understand the nuances of each one.
Thank you Denise, the learning is never-ending and we are always happy to share our stories!
I love your blog Kelsey; firstly, the information was super fascinating; second, I love how your inquisitiveness led to research and an answer to your initial question! Thanks!!
Thanks for this interesting blog Kelsey. Ellies are my favourite animal and the younguns simply melt my heart with their antics. I guess if they can have wrinkles, then it’s OK for us to have them also. Thanks again for sharing.