Tag Archive for 'Elephas'

Schulz et al. examined the whiskers that cover Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) trunks and found that they are geometrically and mechanically tailored to facilitate tactile perception by encoding contact location in the amplitude and frequency of the vibrotactile signal felt at the whisker base. Image credit: Schulz et al., doi: 10.1126/science.adx8981.

Remarkable Sense of Touch in Elephant’s Trunk Isn’t Just about Muscles or Nerves: Study

Feb 17, 2026 by News Staff

Keratin composites enable animals to hike with hooves, fly with feathers, and sense with skin. Mammalian whiskers are elongated keratin rods attached to...

Seltmann et al studied Asian timber elephants in Myanmar. Image credit: John Jackson.

Asian Elephants Have Larger Brains than Their Relatives from Africa, New Research Shows

May 20, 2025 by News Staff

Elephants are fascinating animals. Despite such fascination, our knowledge of the elephant brain is limited, and neuroanatomical differences between Asian...

Banana-peeling behavior of the female Asian elephant Pang Pha depends on banana ripeness and is suppressed in social feeding experiments. Image credit: Kaufmann et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.02.076.

Scientists Describe Unique Banana-Peeling Behavior of Captive Asian Elephant

Apr 12, 2023 by News Staff

Like other elephants, Pang Pha — a female Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) handraised by human caretakers in the Berlin Zoo, Germany — consumes...

A herd of African elephants in South Africa. Image credit: Coco Parisienne.

Scientists Reconstruct Evolutionary History of Elephants

Feb 28, 2018 by News Staff

Elephants were once among the most widespread megafaunal families. However, only three species exist today: two species of the genus Loxodonta, the forest...