Elephant Joy

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Wildlife, Nature, Biodiversity, Behavior, Evolutionary Biology

Ed Hessler

Firstpost has two short videos of elephants taking mud baths, adults and babies. Firstpost notes reasons for this behavior, one that may strike us as odd.

"For the unversed, elephants are known to have very sensitive skin. So, to protect their body from sunburn and other infections, a mud bath is essential for them. With such baths, a layer is formed on the elephant's skin that shields them from harsh rays of the sun as well as insect bites." (What a great word choice in the introduction.).

I was glad that Firstpost included the original caption for the adult segment which read "'Pool party - elephant style.'" Perfect.

The video showing the adults is 10s long and the video showing the youngsters is 15s long and were filmed in India.

Since The Sheldrake Trust is mentioned several times here is the link which describes their important animal conservation work.