Perhaps my colleague used the term "prehensile" loosely. Indeed, she
was not talking about the trunk. See Michael Renner's informative post
below to explain the unique properties of the elephant penis!.
In regards to my video search request, one post said there was
something recently on Animal Planet. Any others?
Jerry Henkel-Johnson
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 08:54:08 -0500
From: "Renner, Michael" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: A prehensile what?
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Message-ID: <l03130305b6cda9868333@[134.29.11.43]>
>On Thu, 8 Mar 2001, Gerald Henkel-Johnson wrote:
>
>> I have a unique request. A fellow instructor in our department is
>> teaching a human sexuality class. She mentioned she once saw a
video
>> which showed an elephant's erect prehensile penis (a quite stunning
>> sight!).
I'll wade in here, albeit with incomplete information. I promise to say
only
what I'm pretty sure I know.
Elephant mating, as you can imagine, requires a somewhat different
geometry
than many other mammal species. Flexibility of the spine creates a lot
of
options, without getting too lurid here, that aren't available to
those
whose torsos are configured more like beach balls or watermelons.
Nature's
solution to this, evolved as the elephant's body type evolved, is that
the
male is equipped with a long (3-5 feet) phallus, at the base of which
are
several muscles that allow him to steer it to the female's vaginal
opening.
It's not prehensile, but it is guided, and it is definitely impressive
to
see it waving around during the mating preliminaries.
In case anybody's interested, elephants also have an interesting
mating
system. As near as we can tell, a female in heat will mate with any
male,
but the last male to mate will be the father of the calf. The biggest,
meanest male in the neighborhood mates with her, and then guards her to
keep
others away. This works only until and unless a bigger, tougher male
comes
along. If one does, then A is displaced by B, who tries to keep all
others
away, etc. Because the scent of an interested female carries, males
come
from quite a distance. The contests last until the female is no longer
in
heat.
Sufficiently clinical to avoid offending the tenderhearted, I hope.
And
please notice that I passed on the easy opportunity to feed myself
several
lovely straight lines...
Best regards,
Michael Renner
