Why does an elephant have a long trunk. Why does an elephant have a long nose? Sense of smell and lips

Baby elephant. Kipling's Fairy Tale for Children to read

In ancient times, my dears, the elephant did not have a trunk. He had only a blackish thick nose, the size of a boot, which swayed from side to side, and the elephant could not lift anything with it. But one elephant appeared in the world, a young elephant, a baby elephant, which was distinguished by restless curiosity and constantly asked some questions. He lived in Africa and conquered all of Africa with his curiosity. He asked his tall uncle the ostrich why he had feathers on his tail; the tall uncle ostrich beat him with his hard, hard paw for this. He asked his tall aunt giraffe why her skin was spotted; for this the giraffe's tall aunt beat him with her hard, hard hoof. And yet his curiosity did not subside!
He asked his fat hippo uncle why his eyes were red; for this, the fat uncle hippo beat him with his wide, very wide hoof. He asked his hairy baboon uncle why melons tasted this way and not another; for this, the hairy uncle baboon beat him with his shaggy, shaggy hand. And yet his curiosity did not subside! He asked questions about everything he saw, heard, tasted, smelled, felt, and all the uncles and aunts beat him for it. And yet his curiosity did not subside!
One fine morning before spring equinox the restless baby elephant asked a strange new question. He asked:
What does a crocodile have for lunch?
Everyone shouted "shh" loudly and began to beat him for a long time, non-stop.
When they finally left him alone, the baby elephant saw a bell bird sitting on a thorn bush and said:
- My father beat me, my mother beat me, my uncles and aunts beat me for "restless curiosity", but I still want to know what a crocodile has for dinner!
The bird kolo-kolo grimly croaked in response to him:
- Go to the shore of a large gray-green muddy river Limpopo, where the fever trees grow, and see for yourself!
The next morning, when the equinox had already ended, the restless baby elephant took one hundred pounds of bananas (small with red skin), one hundred pounds of sugar cane (long with dark bark) and seventeen melons (green, crispy) and declared to his dear relatives:
- Farewell! I go to the big grey-green muddy river Limpopo, where the fever trees grow, to find out what the crocodile has for lunch.
He left, a little flushed, but not at all surprised. On the way, he ate melons, and threw the peels, because he could not pick them up.
He walked and walked to the northeast and ate melons until he came to the bank of the big gray-green muddy river Limpopo, where the fever trees grow, as the bird kololo-kolo told him.
I must tell you, my dears, that until that very week, until that very day, until that very hour, until that very minute, the restless baby elephant had never seen a crocodile and did not even know what he looked like.
The first one that caught the baby elephant's eye was a two-color python ( huge snake), wrapped around a rocky block.
- Excuse me, - politely said the baby elephant, - have you seen a crocodile in these parts?
- Have I seen a crocodile? the python exclaimed angrily. - What's question?
“Excuse me,” the baby elephant repeated, “but can you tell me what a crocodile has for dinner?”
The two-colored python instantly turned around and began to beat the baby elephant with its heavy, heavy tail.
- Weird! - noticed the elephant. - My father and mother, my own uncle and my own aunt, not to mention the other uncle hippo and the third uncle baboon, all beat me for "restless curiosity." Probably, and now I get the same for it.
He politely said goodbye to the python, helped him again wrap himself around the rocky block and went on, a little excited, but not at all surprised. On the way, he ate melons, and threw the peels, because he could not pick them up. At the very bank of the big gray-green muddy river Limpopo, he stepped on something that seemed to him a log.
However, in reality it was a crocodile. Yes, my dears. And the crocodile winked his eye - like that.
- Excuse me, - politely said the baby elephant, - have you ever met a crocodile in these parts?
Then the crocodile screwed up its other eye and stuck its tail half out of the mud. The baby elephant politely backed away; he did not want to be beaten again.
“Come here, little one,” said the crocodile.
- Why are you asking about this?
“Forgive me,” the elephant answered politely, “but my father beat me, my mother beat me, not to mention uncle ostrich and aunt giraffe, who fights just as painfully as uncle hippos and uncle baboons. Even here on the shore a two-colored python beat me, and with its heavy, heavy tail it beats more painfully than all of them. If you don't care, then please don't hit me.
“Come here, little one,” repeated the monster. - I am a crocodile.
And as proof, he burst into crocodile tears.
The baby elephant even took his breath away with joy. He knelt down and said:
- You are the one I have been looking for for many days. Kindly tell me what do you have for lunch?
- Come here, little one, - answered the crocodile, - I'll tell you in your ear.
The baby elephant bent his head into the toothy, fetid mouth of the crocodile. And the crocodile grabbed him by the nose, which until that day and hour the baby elephant had was no more than a boot, although much more useful.
- It seems that today, - said the crocodile through his teeth, like this, - it seems that today I will have a baby elephant for dinner.
The baby elephant did not like this at all, my dears, and he said through his nose, like this:
- No need! Let me go!
Then the two-colored python hissed from his rocky block:
- My young friend, if you do not now begin to pull with all your might, then I can assure you that your acquaintance with a large leather bag (he meant a crocodile) will end badly for you.
The baby elephant sat on the shore and began to pull, pull, pull, and his nose kept stretching. The crocodile floundered in the water, whipping white foam with his tail, and he pulled, pulled, pulled.
The baby elephant's nose continued to stretch. The baby elephant braced himself with all four legs and pulled, pulled, pulled, and his nose continued to stretch. The crocodile raked the water with its tail like an oar, and the baby elephant pulled, pulled, pulled. Every minute his nose was stretched out - and how it hurt, oh-oh-oh!
The baby elephant felt that his legs were slipping, and he said through his nose, which now stretched out two arshins:
- You know, this is too much!
Then a two-color python came to the rescue. He wrapped himself in a double ring around the hind legs of the baby elephant and said:
- Reckless and reckless youth! We must now fit well, otherwise that warrior in armor (he meant the crocodile, my dears) will spoil your whole future.
He pulled, and the baby elephant pulled, and the crocodile pulled.
But the baby elephant and the bicolor python pulled harder. At last the crocodile released the baby elephant's nose with such a splash that was heard along the entire Limpopo River.
The elephant fell on its back. However, he did not forget to immediately thank the two-colored python, and then began to look after his poor protruding nose: Wrapped it in fresh banana leaves and plunged it into the big grey-green muddy river Limpopo.
- What are you doing? asked the bicolor python.
“Forgive me,” said the baby elephant, “but my nose has completely lost its shape, and I am waiting for it to shrink.
"Well, you'll have to wait a long time," said the two-colored python. - It's amazing how others do not understand their own good.
For three days the baby elephant sat and waited for his nose to shrink. And his nose was not shortened at all and even made his eyes slanted. You understand, my dears, that the crocodile pulled out a real trunk for him, such as elephants now have.
At the end of the third day, a fly bit the baby elephant on the shoulder. Without realizing it himself, he lifted his trunk and swat the fly to death.
- Advantage number one! - said the bicolor python. "You couldn't do that with a simple nose." Well, now eat some!
Without realizing it himself, the baby elephant stretched out its trunk, pulled out a huge bunch of grass, knocked it out on its front legs and put it into its mouth.
- The second advantage! - said the bicolor python. "You couldn't do that with a simple nose." Don't you find that the sun is very hot here?
- True, - the elephant answered.
Without realizing it himself, he collected mud from the big gray-green muddy river Limpopo and splashed it on his head. The result was a mud cap that spread behind the ears.
- The third advantage! - said the bicolor python. "You couldn't do that with a simple nose." Don't you want to be beaten?
“Forgive me,” answered the baby elephant, “I don’t want to at all.
- Well, don't you want to beat someone yourself? continued the two-colored python. “I really want to,” said the baby elephant.
- Good. You'll see how your new nose will come in handy for this, - explained the two-colored python.
“Thank you,” said the baby elephant. - I will follow your advice. Now I'll go to mine and try them on them.
In this picture you see a baby elephant plucking bananas from tall tree with her beautiful new long trunk. I know this picture is not very good, but I can't help it: it's too hard to draw bananas and elephants. The black stripe behind the baby elephant depicts a wild swampy area somewhere in the wilderness of Africa. The baby elephant made himself mud caps from the mud that he found there. I think it will be good if you paint a banana tree in green color, and the baby elephant - in red.
The baby elephant went home across Africa, twisting and turning his trunk. When he wanted to eat the fruits, he plucked them from the tree, and did not wait, as before, for them to fall on their own. When he wanted grass, he pulled it out with his trunk without bending down, and did not crawl on his knees, as before. When the flies bit him, he broke off a branch for himself and fanned himself with it. And when the sun was hot, he made himself a new cool cap of mud. When he was bored walking, he hummed a song, and through his trunk it sounded louder than copper pipes. He purposely turned off the road to find some fat hippo (not a relative) and give him a good beating. The baby elephant wanted to see if the two-colored python was right about his new trunk. All the time he was picking up the peels of melons, which he threw on the way to Limpopo: he was distinguished by neatness.
One dark evening he returned to his people and, holding his trunk in a ring, said:
- Hello!
He was very happy and answered:
- Come here, we will beat you for "restless curiosity."
- Ba! - said the elephant. You don't know how to hit at all. But look how I fight.
He turned his trunk and hit his two brothers so that they rolled somersaults.
- Oh oh oh! they exclaimed. - Where did you learn such things? .. Wait, what's on your nose?
- I got a new nose from a crocodile on the banks of the big gray-green muddy river Limpopo, - said the baby elephant. - I asked him what he had for lunch, and he gave me this.
- Ugly, - said the hairy uncle baboon.
- True, - answered the baby elephant, - but very convenient.
With these words, he grabbed his hairy uncle the baboon by the shaggy hand and thrust him into the hornets' nest.
Then the baby elephant began to beat other relatives. They were very excited and very surprised. The baby elephant pulled out the tail feathers of his tall ostrich uncle. Grabbing his tall aunt giraffe by the hind leg, he dragged her through the thorn bushes. The baby elephant yelled at his fat hippo uncle and blew bubbles in his ear when he slept in the water after dinner. But he did not allow anyone to offend the kolokolo bird.
Relations became so aggravated that all the relatives, one by one, hurried to the banks of the big gray-green muddy river Limpopo, where fever trees grow, in order to get new noses from the crocodile. When they returned, no one else fought. Since then, my dears, all the elephants that you will see, and even those that you will not see, have the same trunks as the restless baby elephant.

Many, many years ago, my beloved, the elephant did not have a trunk - only a blackish thick nose, the size of boots; True, the elephant could turn it from side to side, but did not lift any things with it. At the same time, a very young elephant lived in the world, an elephant-child. He was terribly curious, and therefore he always asked everyone various questions. He lived in Africa, and no one in this vast country could satisfy his curiosity. Once he asked his tall uncle the ostrich why the best feathers grow on his tail, and instead of answering the ostrich hit him with his strong paw. The baby elephant asked his tall aunt giraffe where the spots on her skin came from, and this aunt of the baby elephant kicked him with her hard, hard hoof. And yet the young elephant continued to be curious. He asked a fat hippopotamus why she had such red eyes, but she hit him with her fat, fat leg; then he asked his hairy baboon uncle why melons taste like melons, and the hairy baboon uncle slapped him with his hairy, hairy paw. Yet the elephant was filled with an insatiable curiosity. He asked about everything he saw, heard, smelled, touched or smelled, and all the uncles and aunts of the baby elephant only pushed and beat him; nevertheless, an insatiable curiosity was seething in him.

One fine morning, as the equinox approached, a curious baby elephant asked a new question that had never been asked before. He asked, "What do you serve a crocodile for lunch?" And everyone said, "Sh!" - in a loud and fearful whisper, then they began to beat him and for a long time everyone pounded and pounded.

Finally, when the punishment was over, the baby elephant saw the bell bird; she sat in the middle of a thorn bush, which seemed to say: "Wait, wait." And the elephant said: “My father beat me; my mother beat me; my aunts and uncles beat me, and all because I am so insatiably curious, but I still want to know what the crocodile eats at dinner?

The bell-bird cried out sadly and said:

Go to the shores of the big greyish green quiet river Limpopo, bordered by trees that make you sick with a fever, and then you will know.

The very next morning, when there was no sign of the equinox, the curious elephant-child, taking a hundred pounds of bananas (small, short and yellow), a thousand pounds of sugarcane stalks (long, purple), seventeen melons (green, brittle), said to all my dear relatives:

Farewell, I'm going to the grey-green swampy Limpopo River, shaded by trees that smell of fever, and I'll see what the crocodile eats for lunch.

All the relatives beat him just like that, for luck, and beat him for a long time, although he very politely asked them to stop.

Finally, the baby elephant left; he was a little hot, but he was not surprised at this, he ate melons and threw crusts; after all, he could not lift them from the ground.

He went from the city of Gregham to Kimberley, from Kimberley to the Kama region, from the Kama region he headed north and west and ate melons all the time; finally, the elephant-child came to the bank of the great grey-green swampy river Limpopo, shaded by trees that smell of fever. Here everything was as the bell bird said.

Now, my beloved, you must learn and understand that until this very week, until this very day, hour, even until the last minute, the curious baby elephant had never seen a crocodile, and did not even know what he looked like. That's why he was so curious to look at this creature.

First of all he saw the two-colored rock python; this huge snake lay with its coils around the stone.

Sorry to bother you,” the baby elephant said very politely, “but please tell me, have you seen anything like a crocodile anywhere in the area?”

Have I seen a crocodile? - answered the two-colored python of rocks in a voice contemptuous and spiteful. - Well, what else do you ask?

Excuse me, continued the elephant child, but can you kindly tell me what he eats at dinner?

The two-colored rock python quickly turned around and struck the elephant with its scaly, whip-like tail.

What a strange thing, - said the elephant child, - my father and my mother, my uncle and aunt, not to mention my other aunt, the hippo, and my other uncle, the baboon, beat me and kicked me for my insatiable curiosity, and now seems to start the same thing again.

He very politely said goodbye to the two-colored rock python, helped him wrap his body around the rock and left; the elephant felt hot, but he did not feel tired; ate melons and threw peels, because he could not pick them up from the ground. And then the elephant-child stepped on something, as it seemed to him, on a log lying on the very bank of the large gray-green swampy river Limpopo, overgrown with trees that smell of fever.

And this was the crocodile, my beloved, and this crocodile winked with one eye.

Excuse me, - said the elephant-child very politely, - but have you seen a crocodile somewhere nearby?

The crocodile winked with the other eye, lifting its tail from the mud; the baby elephant stepped back politely; he didn't want to be beaten.

Come here, baby, said the crocodile. - Why do you ask?

I beg your pardon, - the elephant-child answered very politely, - but my father beat me; my mother beat me, in a word, everyone beat me, not to mention my tall uncle the ostrich and my tall aunt giraffe, who kick cruelly; not to mention my fat aunt, the hippo, and my hairy uncle, the baboon, and including the two-colored rock python with its scaly, whip-like tail that hits the hardest; so, if you do not really want this, I ask you not to whip me with your tail.

Come here, baby, - the crocodile drawled, - the fact is that I am a crocodile. - And to prove that he was telling the truth, the crocodile cried crocodile tears.

The baby elephant stopped breathing in surprise; then, panting, he knelt on the shore and said:

It's you I've been looking for all these long, long days. Would you agree to say what you eat at dinner?

Come closer, baby, said the crocodile. And I'll whisper it in your ear.

The baby elephant pushed his head towards the crocodile's toothy mouth, and the crocodile grabbed the baby elephant by its short nose, which until that very week, until that day, hour and until that minute was no bigger than a boot, although much more useful than any shoe.

It seems, - said the crocodile (he said it through his teeth), - it seems that today I will start dinner with a baby elephant.

Hearing this, my beloved, the elephant felt annoyed and said through his nose:

Let it go! I'm in pain!

Tales of Kipling R. D. - Elephant-child (Elephant)
This is an elephant-child; the crocodile tugs at his nose. The elephant is very surprised and amazed, and it also hurts a lot, and he says through his nose: “Let go, it hurts me!” He tries his best to yank his nose out of the crocodile's mouth; the crocodile drags the elephant in the other direction. A two-colored rock python swims to help the baby elephant. The black streaks and spots are the banks of the great grey-green quiet Limpopo River (I was not allowed to color in the pictures), and the trees with curved roots and eight leaves are exactly the kind of trees that smell of fever.

Below this picture are the shadows of African animals walking into the African Noah's Ark. There are two lions, two ostriches, two bulls, two camels, two sheep and many pairs of other animals that live among the rocks. All these animals mean nothing. I drew them because they seemed pretty to me; and if I were allowed to color them, they would be downright lovely.

At that moment the two-colored rock python descended from the shore and said:

My young friend, if you do not pull your nose with all your might now, I believe your new acquaintance, covered in patent leather (he meant "crocodile"), will drag you into the depths of this transparent stream before you can say: "Jack Robinson.

This is the way the two-colored rock pythons always speak.

The baby elephant obeyed the rock python; he sat down on his hind legs and began to pull his nose out of the crocodile's mouth; he kept pulling and pulling it, and the baby elephant's nose began to stretch. The crocodile fussed and beat the water with his big tail, so that it foamed; at the same time he was pulling the elephant by the nose.

The baby elephant's nose continued to stretch; the elephant spread all his four legs and did not stop pulling his nose out of the mouth of the crocodile, and his nose became longer and longer. The crocodile, on the other hand, led the water with his tail, like an oar, and pulled and pulled the elephant by the nose; and every time he pulls on this spout, it will become longer. The elephant was in terrible pain.

Suddenly the elephant-child felt that his feet were slipping; he rode them along the bottom; Finally, speaking through his nose, which was now extended almost five feet, the baby elephant said, "I've had enough!"

The two-colored rock python descended into the water, wrapped around the hind legs of the elephant like two loops of rope and said:

Imprudent and inexperienced traveler, from now on we will seriously devote ourselves to important business, we will try to pull your nose with all our might, as it seems to me that this self-propelled warship with armor on the upper deck (in these words, my beloved, it meant a crocodile) will interfere with your further movements.

All bicolor rock pythons always speak in such confusing terms.

A bicolor python was pulling an elephant; the baby elephant stuck out its nose; the crocodile pulled him too; but the baby elephant and the two-colored rock python pulled harder than the crocodile, and at last the baby elephant released the nose, and the water splashed so that this splash could be heard along the entire length of the Limpopo River, up and downstream.

At the same time, the baby elephant suddenly sat down, or rather, plopped into the water, but before that he said to the python: “Thank you!” Then he took care of his poor nose, which had been tugged at for so long, wrapped it in fresh banana leaves, and dipped it into the water of the great, grey-green, quiet Limpopo River.

Why are you doing this? asked the two-colored rock python.

I beg your pardon, replied the elephant child, but my nose has completely lost its shape, and I am waiting for it to wrinkle and shrink.

You will have to wait a long time, - said the two-colored rock python. - Still, I note that many do not understand their benefits.

For three days the baby elephant sat and waited for his nose to shrink. But this nose was not made shorter; besides, he had to squint his eyes cruelly. My beloved, you will understand that the crocodile has stretched the elephant's nose into a real trunk, like those that you see now in all elephants.

Tales of Kipling R. D. - Elephant-child (Elephant) 2
Here is a picture of a baby elephant at the moment when he is about to pick bananas from the top of a banana tree with his beautiful new long trunk. I don't find this picture good, but I couldn't draw it better because drawing elephants and bananas is very, very difficult. Behind the baby elephant you see blackness, and stripes across it; I wanted to portray a marshy swampy area somewhere in Africa. Most the elephant-child made his cakes from silt, which he got from these swamps. It seems to me that the picture will become much more beautiful if you paint the banana tree green and the elephant red.

On the third day, a tsetse fly came and bit the elephant on the shoulder. The elephant, not understanding what he was doing, raised his trunk and killed the fly with its end.

Benefit number one, said the bicolor rock python. - You couldn't do that with your little nose. Well, now try to eat.

Before he had time to think what he was doing, the elephant-child stretched out his trunk, plucked a large tuft of grass, pounded these green stalks on his front legs to shake off the dust from them, and finally put them in his mouth.

Benefit number two, said the bicolor rock python. - You couldn't do that with your shorty nose. Do you think the sun is too hot?

Yes, - the elephant-child agreed and, before he even had time to think what he was doing, he scooped up silt from the gray-green swampy river Limpopo and smeared his head with it; the silt made a cool silty hat; water flowed from it behind the ears of a baby elephant.

Benefit number three, said the bicolor rock python. "You couldn't do that with your old shorty nose." Well, what do you say about the beaters that you were treated to? Will it start again?

I beg your pardon, - said the elephant-child, - I do not want this at all.

Wouldn't it be nice for you to beat someone up? - the two-colored python of rocks asked the elephant.

I would like it very much, - answered the elephant-child.

Well, - said the two-colored rock python, - you will see that your new nose will be useful when you decide to beat someone with it.

Thank you, - said the elephant-child, - I will remember this, and now I will go home to my dear relatives and see what happens next.

The baby elephant did indeed go home through Africa; he waved and twisted his trunk. When he wanted to eat fruits from trees, he took them from high branches; he did not have to wait, as before, for these fruits to fall to the ground. When he wanted grass, he tore it from the ground and he did not have to kneel down, as he did in the old days. When flies bit him, he tore off a branch from a tree and turned it into a fan; when the sun burned his head, he made himself a new, cool, damp hat of silt or clay. When he got bored, he sang, or rather, blew through his trunk, and this song sounded louder, the music of several brass bands. He deliberately made a detour to see a fat hippo (she was not related to him) and beat it hard with his trunk to see if the two-colored rock python was telling the truth. For the rest of the time, he picked up melon peels from the ground, which he threw on the road to Limpopo. He did this because he was a very clean, thick-skinned animal.

One dark evening, the baby elephant returned to his dear relatives, folded his trunk into a ring and said:

How are you?

They were all very glad to see him and immediately said:

Come closer, we'll spank you for your insatiable curiosity.

Ba, - said the elephant-child, - I don't think that any of you knew how to fight; I know how to beat and now I will teach you how to do it.

Then he straightened his trunk, hit two of his dear relatives, so hard that they flew somersaults.

Miracles, they said, where did you learn such a thing? And pray tell, what have you done to your nose?

The crocodile gave me a new nose, and it happened on the banks of the big gray-green marshy river Limpopo, - answered the baby elephant. - I asked him what he had for dinner, and he stuck out my nose for it.

What a disgrace! - remarked the baboon, the hairy uncle of the baby elephant.

He is ugly, - said the elephant-child, - but very comfortable, - and, saying this, the baby elephant grabbed one leg of his hairy uncle with his trunk, picked him up and put him in a hornet's nest.

After that, the bad baby elephant beat all his dear relatives for a long time, beat him until they became very hot. They were completely surprised. The baby elephant tugged at his tall uncle the ostrich by his tail feathers; caught his tall aunt giraffe by her hind leg and dragged her through a thorny bush; when his fat aunt, a hippopotamus, after eating, was resting in the water, he put his trunk to her very ear, shouted two or three words to her, at the same time letting a few bubbles through the water. But neither at that time, nor later, did he ever allow anyone to offend the bell bird.

Finally, all the cute relatives of the baby elephant began to get so excited that one by one they ran to the banks of the large gray-green marshy river Limpopo, shaded by trees that smell of fever; each of them wanted to get a new nose from a crocodile. When they returned home, they no longer beat each other; the uncles and aunts did not touch the baby elephant either. From this day on, my beloved, all the elephants you see and all that you do not see have very long trunks, just like the one that the curious baby elephant had.

Of course, you know, little one, that in nature the one who is best adapted to difficult conditions survives, full of danger life. Listen to the story of how the elephant got its trunk.

And it was all like this: a long time ago, millions of years ago, distant ancestors of elephants roamed the earth. Instead of a trunk, they had a slightly elongated fused nose and upper lip. With such a nose - a lip, elephants grabbed tidbits from trees. Some of the animals had a nose-lip that was at least a little longer, that got more food. These animals grew strong and hardy. But in nature, the fittest survive. This is how those elephant-like survived, whose nose-lip was at least a little longer than the rest. The cubs, born into the world with longer nose-lips than their counterparts, had an easier life. And the cubs of their cubs also had an easier life. So from generation to generation animals appeared, at least not by much, but with longer and longer noses - lips.

Centuries passed. And nature sifted out, selected from all animals the most enduring, most adapted to the difficulties of life, including elephants with long noses. Thanks to such natural selection, the nose-lip turned first into a short nose, and then into a real trunk. At the tip of the trunk, at first, something like a finger turned out, with which an elephant can even pick up a blade of grass from the ground. Once - and the elephant tore off a bunch of grass for them, two - a green twig, a delicious fruit, three - doused it on a hot day with water, like from a hose, four - sprinkled sand on their sides. The elephant even learned to trumpet with its trunk.

• Why does the elephant a long nose? I think everyone has asked this question.
• Here is how children answer this question: The paws of an elephant are thick and clumsy. Will they be able to pick a delicious banana from a palm tree or brush off annoying insects? Here is the wise nature and gave the elephant a trunk, which serves him not only as a nose, but also as a “hand”. An elephant draws water with its trunk and pours it into its mouth. He also sends food to his mouth. If you want to take a shower, again you can’t do without a trunk. The elephant's trunk is strong and flexible and in case of danger can become a formidable weapon.
• There are many legends about this occasion.
• Once upon a time, there lived a Khan. He had the longest nose in the world.

Every time Khan had a baby, he went up to him, looked at his nose and, sighing sadly, said: "It's short again." All the inhabitants of the planet had a normal nose length, even the heirs of Khan. Khan was very upset about this. And then one day, an interesting thought came to his mind.

• He ordered to bring the largest inhabitant of the planet and stretch his nose. The servants searched for a long time and finally found ... It turned out to be an elephant. They pulled the elephant by the nose for so long that it became seven times longer than the nose of their master. When Khan saw this elephant, he couldn't help but be delighted.

Now I don't have one long nose! Ha ha ha!

• Contrary to the offspring of the Khan, the descendants of the elephant, since then, were born only with long noses.

An elephant's nose is called a trunk. The trunk is a long flexible process formed by the nose and upper lip fused together. At African elephant the trunk ends in 2 processes, dorsal and ventral. The usual length of the trunk is about 1.5 m, weight - 135 kg. Thanks to a complex system of muscles and tendons, the trunk has great mobility and strength. With its help, the elephant is able to both pick up a small object and lift a load weighing 250-275 kg. An elephant's trunk can hold 7.5 liters of water. But small elephants do not know how to use this “appendage” and even sometimes step on it. It takes a lot of time to learn how to master it. This lesson is taken over by the elephants, who teach the kids the skill for several months. Moreover, they do not leave their children for many years - such a strong motherly love!

• The trunk has many muscles - about 40,000. Therefore, this organ is very strong and flexible. So the elephant can use his trunk as a very effective weapon. The tip of the trunk, like the fingers, is so sensitive that it can feel a barely perceptible touch.
• species-specific anatomical feature respiratory system elephant is the presence of a trunk. This organ is used by animals for breathing, eating, water, communication, tactile sensations and much more. On the ground, elephants breathe through both their mouths and their trunks. Being in the water, in which they are often completely immersed, elephants breathe with their trunk, putting it out. An elephant performs 4-6 respiratory movements per minute. The trunk, as noted above, consists of 40,000 muscle fibers, due to which it is extremely mobile, can bend in all directions, lengthen, shorten in accordance with the requirements of the environment. With the help of a trunk, an elephant can lift very heavy objects and supply water to oral cavity while gaining immediately up to 17 liters! Then he puts the end of the trunk in his mouth and releases water into his throat. In addition, elephants, by inserting their trunk into their throats, can draw water from the stomach and then pour it on themselves or on their cubs to cool down.
• The trunk also serves elephants for communication, courtship and care of children, but can also become a formidable weapon in battle. An elephant that has lost its trunk is doomed to starvation. The only time an elephant doesn't need a trunk to eat is early childhood: baby elephant sucks mother's milk directly by mouth. The sense of smell of an elephant is very subtle, it can smell a person more than 1.5 km away. An elephant performs 4-6 respiratory movements per minute.
• There is such a fact about the appearance of a trunk in elephants: In 1993, due to the production of South Africa shooting elephants (this is a separate sad topic), 6 embryos aged from 58 to 166 days fell into the hands of scientists. In the course of their research, it turned out that the elephant is a former marine mammal (similar sea ​​cows), which returned to land again 30 million years ago. That he used his trunk originally as a breathing tube. Then it is clear what made the trunk lengthen over time. It is also clear why the elephant needed large ears-fins. Well, what about the size? Normal for a marine animal. Weight is no longer an issue when the water pushes out. By the way, Indian elephant and, now, he uses his trunk like that, swimming with a log across the river. He cannot breathe through his mouth because of his short neck.

How did you come to all this?

• Nephrostomes were found in all elephant embryos. As I understand it, these are some kind of renal canals that are found only in freshwater fish, frogs and egg-laying reptiles and mammals (echidna, platypus). Normal mammals do not have them.
• The trunk of the embryo, as it turned out, develops much earlier than one might think, which also fits into its marine origin.

Follow-up DNA comparisons of elephants biochemical analyzes and immune system With marine mammals, showed their amazing closeness to sea cows.

• How interesting and how bizarre the world is. Once upon a time, all living things lived in water. Then the living creatures began to crawl onto land. Mammals appeared. Some of them (whales, dolphins) returned to the seas and oceans. It would seem, where next? So no, there were repatriates who again returned to land. Carousel of evolution, and nothing more.

Olga Korovina
Project "Where does the elephant's trunk come from"

« Where does the elephant's trunk come from»

Ivanov Yaroslav

MBDOUd/s#12 "Our happiness"

Application.

According to the text of the abstract - presentation « Where does the elephant's trunk come from» (28 illustrations on sheets, 1 copy).

Competition research preschool projects

Where does the elephant's trunk come from?

Section: “My first teaching and research project»

(natural science direction)

Ivanov Yaroslav,

MBDOU d / s No. 12 "Our happiness"

Tbilisi region,

stanitsa Tbilisskaya

Scientific leaders:

« Where does the elephant's trunk come from»

Ivanov Yaroslav

MBDOU d / s No. 12 "Our happiness"

Annotation.

I love learning new and interesting things about the world around us. Most of all I enjoy listening to my mother reading, studying and looking at illustrations, watching TV shows and movies about animals. My favorite animal - elephant.

I recently visited the Darwin Museum, where I saw the fossil baby mammoth Lyuba and other exhibits elephants and mammoths.

I asked my parents:

From where elephants appeared trunk, because animals descended from dinosaurs and them with trunk was not?

Hypothesis: elephant's trunk appeared in the process of evolution.

Target: explore life elephants and trunk functions. Consider evolutionary development elephants.

Object of study: elephants.

Tasks:

Explore life elephants.

Reveal functional tasks elephant trunk.

Find the answer to your question « Where does the elephant's trunk come from?»

Life elephants.

Elephant- the largest and most powerful animal on earth. Only whales surpass them in size.

live elephants 70-80 years old eat plant foods. Elephant feeds on grass and tree leaves.

They sleep little - half as much as a person. This gives them the opportunity to spend more time looking for food. They move freely through swamps and thickets, easily climb large mountain slopes, and swim well. The body is dressed in skin that no thorns and thorns can hurt.

There are two kinds in the world elephants, each with one type.

African - lives in the forest areas of tropical Africa.

Indian - lives in Sri Lanka and the Indian Peninsula, in the countries of Indochina, South China and on the large islands of Indonesia.

Elephants live in herds(family groups). In a herd from 10 to 35 elephant with baby elephants and one old elephant. At elephants mostly one cub is born. Elephant very cute and cute babies who travel by grabbing proboscis for mother's tail.

Favorite activity for elephants are food. Every day he eats up to 250 kilograms of food and drinks up to 200 liters of water.

elephants they adore water and do not miss the opportunity to swim and splash in the reservoirs. They are excellent swimmers, surprisingly leaving only the very tip above the water. trunk and forehead.

Roar elephant is a piercing and screeching sound that resembles both the squeal of car brakes and the hoarse huge bugle.

elephants- Animals are very friendly. When they see each other, they, like people, always say hello, they just do it in their own way. special ritual, which is intertwined trunks with each other while trumpeting loudly.

As little children hold their mother's hand with their hand, so baby elephants in the first years of life go for elephant - mother holding her tail with her proboscis.

In addition to the huge size, elephant, strikes and surprises him trunk

Functional tasks trunk.

What is this organ? What is it for elephant? How was it formed? And generally speaking trunk Is it a changed upper lip, nose or hand? How to answer all these questions?

trunk elephants perform many actions. They are recruiting in trunk water water themselves and each other with this water; take trunk food; pluck leaves and branches; trumpet; clap and stroke each other and even know how to draw with them.

But how could it appear elephant such an amazing organ?

And it was all like that.

And everything was like that: a long time ago, millions of years ago, distant ancestors roamed the earth elephants. Instead of trunk they had a slightly elongated fused nose and upper lip. With such a nose - lip elephants snatched tidbits from the trees. Some of the animals had a nose-lip that was at least a little longer, that got more food. These animals grew strong and hardy. But in nature, the fittest survive. That's how they survived elephantine, whose nose-lip was at least a little longer than the rest. The cubs, born into the world with longer nose-lips than their counterparts, had an easier life. And the cubs of their cubs also had an easier life. So from generation to generation animals appeared, at least not by much, but with longer and longer noses - lips.

Centuries passed. And nature sifted out, selected from all animals the most enduring, most adapted to the difficulties of life, including elephants with long noses. Thanks to such natural selection, the nose-lip turned first into a short nose, and then into a real one. trunk. at the tip trunk at first it turned out something like a finger, which elephant can pick up even a blade of grass from the ground. Once - and elephant he plucked a bunch of grass for them, two - a green twig, a delicious fruit, three - he doused himself on a hot day with water, like from a hose, four - he sprinkled sand on his sides. The elephant even learned to blow his trunk.

Conclusion.

In the evolution of the detachment proboscis a definite trend can be observed. From the Eocene meriterium (1) through the Oligocene fayum (2, Miocene homotherium (3) and tetralophodon (4) to the Pliocene Stegodon (5) and modern elephant(6) there is an increase in size, complication of teeth, the transformation of incisors into tusks and the development trunk from the fused nose and upper lip.

Series of evolution proboscis, shown in the figure, is collected from representatives of different evolutionary lines and has only comparative anatomical significance.

I hugged the globe - the globe of the earth.

Alone over land and water

In the hands of my continents

They whisper softly to me "take care"

After all, animals, birds, ants

We are all children of the same green!

Related publications:

Sensory development serves as the basis for understanding the world. It is aimed at developing in children a full perception of the surrounding reality.

Abstract of an open lesson on applications in the second junior group "Vitamins for an Elephant" Plan - abstract open class on artistic and aesthetic development (applications) in the second junior group Topic of the lesson: “Vitamins.

Summary of the lesson on the formation of elementary mathematical representations "Elephant's Birthday" in the preparatory group Abstract of the lesson on the formation of elementary mathematical representations with the help of non-traditional methods of activity on the topic “Day.

Short-term project "Where did the bread come from" The project “Where did the bread come from” Author of the project Sheerman T. B. 2016 Type of project: information and research. duration.