The landscape, in Jacana, if full of wild palm date trees. And there are big tall tree and shrubby little bushes. The guide explained that the elephants eat the young trees and prevent them from growing. This is how they do this.
These are the dates
And this old guy will demo the technique
First of course, the trunk. Proboscis, but different from the one we see prenatally!
The elephant proboscis is a combination of nose and upper lip. It is a muscular hydrostat like the tongue. It ends in 2 "finger-like" projections in African Elephants (only the superior one in Asian Elephants !). The hair at the end of the proboscis are shorter then along the trunk, not because they are worn out, but because they are tactile bristles like a cat's whiskers. This is how they can feel tiny objects like seeds, without looking.
The superior and inferior finger-like projections (No scientific name to this part !) are well visible here
First isolate the stem of a palm...
Isolate the bundle ...
Twist and twirl..
Then wrap around the trunk...
... then yank out !
The bundle is now asymmetrically positioned on the trunk ...
... and needs to be rebalanced...
Now it is even !
Note on a strict profile, how high the mouth actually extends
Stuffing the palm leaves up there!
Yum, yum
Great ! 50 g of food ! Only 199.950 kg more to go !
