Can elephants swim and dive?
Like all mammals (except humans and apes, who have to learn how to swim), elephants are very good, untiring swimmers.
Elephants move all four legs to swim and are able to move quite fast like that. Their big body provides enough floatation while the trunk acts like a snorkel.
Movie from the elephant house in Zoo Zurich
How do Elephants swim?
Elephants mostly swim with their face above and their mouth below the water surface. They breathe through their trunk which they use as a snorkel. Video from the elephant house in Zurich Zoo
Can Elephants swim long distances?
These strong animals can swim long distances without a problem. Experts suppose that elephants once swam from Southern India to Sri Lanka where they settled.
Do Elephants like to swim?
Particularly young elephants love swimming and diving. They “fight” the waves in wild abandon, climb about on the older group members and splash back into the water. They are also untiring divers. When watching the animals in the water, the elephant keepers are always relieved to spot the small elephant’s trunk peeping out of the water again to take another breath.
How do Elephants swim?
more movies about elephant swimming
Yet I read recently that hippos can’t swim and what looks like swimming is a kind of microgravity bouncing bit like astronauts on the Moon,the water creates a pseudo microgravity.elephants are much bigger than hippos so could they be doing that too, although the underwater pictures certainly look like swimming?for elephants to have got from India to Sri Lanka they would need to swim but there is an island chain, Adams bridge,which is the remains of a land bridge.
Hello Kevan Hubbard
You’re right, hippos don’t swim very well. They cross rivers at shallower places where they also have some ground contact.
Elephants, however, can swim very well. They can cross narrow lakes or deep rivers without contact to the ground. Healthy elephants are persistent and good swimmers who use their trunks as a snorkel.
Friendly greetings
Georges Frei