It’s fairly common for wild elephants to be observed getting down on their front ankles and putting a large amount of their weight and balance onto their heads. Calves are the most frequently seen doing the behavior, since through play they practice the skills they’ll need as adults. It takes them a while to figure out how to balance and what on earth to do with their trunks, but that doesn’t discourage them...

While many people think of a circus act when they think of an elephant balancing on two legs, it’s actually a fairly common behavior among wild elephants! They’ve been observed standing up on their back legs while foraging - it’s a pretty useful technique for getting branches that are just out of trunk-range.

Elephants are a very large animal living in a very hot climate. There are two methods of temperature regulation that a human body can utilize in the heat: we can sweat, which cools our bodies as the moisture evaporates; or our blood vessels dilate and bring more quantities of warm blood closer to the surface of our skin so the heat can radiate out into the air around us. Unfortunately, elephants can’t sweat...