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NGSS: Core Idea: LS4.C: Adaptation

CCSS: Reading Informational Texts

Trunk Trick

Researchers have discovered that elephants use suction to pick up food—much like a vacuum does.

Martin Harvey/Getty Images

COOLING OFF:

An elephant sprays itself with water to beat the heat.

Andrew Schulz visited Africa with his mother when he was a teenager. During the trip, he fell in love with elephants. He became interested in how elephants use their trunks. Elephants use their long, flexible noses for many things. They use them to breathe, grasp food, and even suck up water and spray it into their mouths.

Today, Schulz is a Ph.D. student. He is studying mechanical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He’s trying to learn more about the biomechanics of elephants’ trunks. Biomechanics is the study of how living things move. Schulz wanted to study how elephants eat. “It’s one of those things you always see, but no one really knows what’s going on,” he says.

Schulz performed a series of experiments with a 34-year-old African elephant named Kelly at Zoo Atlanta in Georgia. Elephants are known to use their trunks like people use their hands to pick up food and carry it to their mouths. But Schulz made a surprising discovery: Elephants also use their tube-shaped noses like a vacuum to suction up certain treats.

Courtesy of Andrew Schulz and Adam Thompson, Zoo Atlanta

ELEPHANT ENGINEER:

Andrew Schulz and Kelly at Zoo Atlanta.

TRUNK TEST

Schulz and his team set up slow-motion video cameras to record Kelly eating. They fed her cubes of rutabaga—a turnip-like root vegetable. Kelly would lift big chunks of rutabaga with her trunk. Then she would place them in her mouth.

But she did something else when given a lot of small pieces. Kelly would gather them all together. Then she would suck the bits up into the tip of her trunk and shoot them into her mouth. That was the first time anyone had observed an elephant using suction to eat, says Schulz.

Courtesy of Andrew Schulz and Zoo Atlanta

Courtesy of Andrew Schulz and Zoo Atlanta

GETTING A GRIP

Schulz wanted to give Kelly another challenge. How might she eat a delicate, flat object, like a leaf on the ground? The researchers gave her a round tortilla chip to find out. 

Kelly first tried picking up the chip. But she quickly sensed that it was too fragile. Then she hovered the end of her trunk above the snack and tried sucking it up. The suction wasn’t powerful enough. She pressed her trunk lightly onto the surface of the chip and sucked again. The snack stuck! She moved the chip that was now on the end of her trunk to her mouth and—CRUNCH!

SUPER SUCTION

Schulz’s investigation didn’t just uncover a mystery about elephants' trunks. His findings could have other uses as well. Schulz hopes his discoveries will lead to the creation of new robots. These future machines could use a combination of grabbing and suction to pick up objects—all inspired by an elephant’s nose.

Scientists follow steps to make discoveries. First, they ask a question they want to solve. Next, they predict what the answer might be. Then, they collect data, or evidence, that could help answer the question. Finally, they make a claim using evidence from their investigation.

1. WHAT research question did Andrew Schulz want to answer?

2. HOW did Schulz discover elephants’ ability to pick up and eat food using suction?

3. WHAT variables did Schulz change to learn more about how Kelly the elephant eats?

4. WHY does Schulz think the results of his investigation could be used for other purposes? Can you think of any ways this study could help improve technology?

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