Land Mammals, features and articles | Educational Science

Aug 18, 2020

This palm-sized elephant relative was just sighted for the first time in 50 years

A teensy animal, with a long nose, a fur tuft on its tail and big, spectacled eyes hadn't been seen in nearly half a century. That is, until a whiff of peanut butter lured the wee mouse-sized mammal out from the rocky, rugged lands of Djibouti in the Horn of...

Aug 28, 2020

Can CBD soothe mourning elephants? A Polish zoo is about to find out

A zoo in Poland plans to test cannabidiol — also known as CBD, a chemical found in cannabis — on its elephants, for stress relief. According to the BCC, the Warsaw Zoo's decision follows the March death of Erna, the elder elephant in the herd. Elephants are matriarchal, meaning older...

Sep 22, 2020

350 elephants killed by 'a combination of neurotoxins' in water, Botswana government says

Scientists in Botswana may finally know why more than 350 elephants have mysteriously dropped dead in the country's Okavango Delta wetlands since May. The culprit — or one of them, anyway — appears to be neurotoxins spread by thriving colonies of bacteria living in the region's water holes. Our latest...

Dec 23, 2020

Man revives baby elephant using CPR: How does that work?

A viral video shows a rescue worker in Thailand successfully reviving a baby elephant using CPR after the animal was struck by a motorbike while crossing a road in the southeastern province of Chanthaburi. After performing CPR, the rescuer, Mana Srivate, was able to get the elephant back on its...

Jan 24, 2021

Elephants counted from space using satellites and AI

African elephants are the first animals to be successfully counted from space while moving through a complicated landscape that ranged from open grasses to forests. Researchers combined high-resolution images captured 372 miles (600 kilometers) above Earth's surface by the satellites Worldview 3 and 4, along with deep computer learning to...

Jun 2, 2021

Elephants inhale water at 330 mph

Elephants' trunks suck a lot — and that's a good thing. Powerful suction allows elephants to deftly grasp small and delicate pieces of food, even fragile tortilla chips that would otherwise be crushed or fumbled by the grip of their muscular trunks. High-speed video recently revealed that this suction success...

Jul 15, 2021

Baby elephant abandoned by internet-famous herd has been rescued

An injured baby elephant that was abandoned by its herd in China has been rescued by a local animal rescue group, according to recent news reports. The youngster is likely part of a herd of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) that became famous in June after the group made an unusually...

Oct 22, 2021

After rampant ivory poaching, some African elephants lost their tusks — Why?

Ivory poaching in Africa drove the rapid evolution of tuskless elephants in some regions, but the good news is that increased protections from poachers are helping the pachyderms get their tusks back. In African elephants, tusklessness is very rare, said Brian Arnold, a biomedical data scientist at Princeton University. But...

May 21, 2022

Asian elephant mom carries dead calf for weeks, new eye-opening videos reveal

Asian elephants, like their African cousins, seem to mourn their dead, sometimes even carrying their lost infants in their trunks for days or weeks, new research finds. Whether elephants understand death in the same way humans do is unknown — and probably unknowable. But Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) are social...

Jan 29, 2023

Do elephants really 'never forget'?

They say an elephant never forgets. But how much truth is there to that expression? How good is an elephant's memory? Though it's not strictly accurate to say an elephant never forgets, the pachyderms did evolve to remember details that are key to their survival. For example, elder African elephants...

Jul 5, 2023

Elephants' giant, hot testicles could stop them getting cancer

Elephants rarely get cancer, and their giant, hot testicles might provide a clue as to why. The idea comes down to a protein called p53, which helps prevent DNA damage in cells — including damage that could turn a normal cell into a cancerous cell. Elephants, unlike humans, have multiple...

Jul 10, 2023

'Airborne' elephant dangles from a crane by its feet in award-winning photo

As conservationists look on, an elephant is dramatically hoisted feet-first into the air by a truck, its long trunk dangling down towards the ground. The stunning shot is one of the winners of this year's Environmental Photography Award — the third annual photo contest hosted by the Prince Albert II...

Nov 14, 2023

Elephants give each other names — the 1st non-human animals to do so, study claims

Name a famous elephant. Babar, perhaps? Or Dumbo? Memorable though these monikers may be to humans, they sound nothing like the names elephants give each other. If you're an elephant, your name is something more like a low, rumbling sound, scientists say. In a new paper published Aug. 23 on...

Nov 14, 2023

Dwarf elephants and shedding mammoths shine at NYC's 'Secret World of Elephants'

After the dinosaur-killing asteroid struck Earth about 66 million years ago, it took only a few million years for the earliest known elephant relative to emerge. This was the dog-size Eritherium, the earliest known proboscidean, which lived around 60 million years ago in North Africa. But it didn't look anything...

Nov 14, 2023

'It's really quite remarkable': An interview with elephant expert Ross MacPhee about the giant pachyderms

Elephants are known for their impressive ears, tusks and trunks. For instance, they cool down by pumping hot blood through their large ears, which they then flap to dissipate the heat. As for their trunks, Asian elephants have one finger at the end of their trunk, while African elephants have...