Trunk Show: Elephants Know Nose
Living among co-evolved creatures is awe-inspiring. Especially when they are as majestic as elephants.
The real-time reflection on how time changes habitats and retains senses is unparalleled. Humans are still small in comparison elephants, but larger than themselves on the evolutionary timeline. The hunter-gatherer lifestyle has adapted to Trader Joes’ frozen foods section. Though elephants have remained as part of the larger mammals surviving evolutionary conditions, some of the divergent species, like the Borneo elephant, have relatively dwarfed. Despite constantly confronting extinction, for over 6 million years those sweeping trunks have remained an Earthly pillar.
The Great Elephant Migration is visiting NYers until October 20th. (Image: AKJAM Publishing)
The Great Elephant Migration exhibition is currently migrating through the United States. A group of 100 lantana-woven Indian elephants are roaming through club-hopping territory. Constructed with invasive weeds, each elephant “twins” a real elephant (Elephas maximus indicus). They have names like Sitara and Amarena, are in baby sizes and 60-year-old grandma heights, some have their trunks in the air and others curling them toward the tanbark. Artisans were able to contrive the real counterparts’ characters into the sculptures.
The matriarchal herd has stopped in NYC’s Meatpacking District until mid-October.
THE $CIENCE
Elephas maximus indicus does not ugly cry as far as we know. Neural banches from the trigeminal ganglia prompt the trunk to feel and remember as it migrates to find another habitat. The eyes produce “tears” to clear out debris. (Image: AKJAM Publishing)
Sensory information is one detail that helps us adapt to our environment- people, places and things. Sense of smell, respiration and movement are crucial for survival. Crying also gets some people through a day of crowded streets, relocating and food cost inflation.
The human nose and elephant trunk communicate sentiment in different ways. When people start crying because the rent is too high on a 6th-floor walk up in Queens, a nerve segment that emerges from the trigeminal ganglion prompts the lacrimal glands and nasal mucosa. That means tears and sniffles (aka ugly crying) are a two-for-one deal.
Elephants, that we know of, do not emotionally cry. But they do feel exceptionally more with their trunks. If humans are hostile or the environment has no food, elephants move on. The trigeminal ganglion and its subdivisions make the tip of their trunk distinctly attuned to environmental and personal contact. Innervated with over 50,000 motor neurons and highly specialized thick whiskers, an elephant’s trunk allows her to travel over hundreds of miles just to eat and recall which paths are safe and supportive. Baby elephants learn from the leader of the herd- their grandmothers.
Humans have less of that ability because they evolved to need Google Maps.
Bottom Line
NYers and visitors can take a baby home from $8000. A lantana-woven baby-sized sculpture of an elephant, that is. (Image: AKJAM Publishing)
Through their travels, Indian elephants have learned to coexist with humans. They only attack if a former environment taught them that humans will harm them.
The lantana elephant sculptures have added a joyful safari to the cobbled streets of a once animal sacrifice district. Roam over to the Meatpacking for this delightful experience until October 20th.
Visiting Tips:
Certain times of day are less likely to have a ton of strangers in your quality time with the elephants. Saturday afternoon is not one of them. (Image: AKJAM Publishing)
As elephants and humans share spaces in Karnataka, NYers need to share this exhibition space with an elephantine crowd of visitors and other locals. A decent photo sans strangers is challenging. Early morning or early evening before the sun sets are less packed. Midday Saturday sees peak human activity and limited access to individual elephants. Sunday around 5p is quieter despite what seems to be family pre-dinner activity time. Anytime during the work week is more relaxed.
No matter which time or day, you’ll probably inadvertently end up in vacation content of a bunch of strangers. Just take your trunk and move on. Or buy an elephant for your studio apartment! A baby is $8000 and a tusker goes for $22000.
The herd of 100 elephants is based on their matriarchal hierarchy. Rather than mature through instinctive actions, elephants learn how to live from their grandmothers. (Image: AKJAM Publishing)