# can elephants really swim? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 24, 2000, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elephants-really-swim/23375 "2000-06-24T01:06:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2000, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elephants-really-swim/23375/1 "2000-06-24T01:06:05Z")
A friendly member of the Teeming Millions sent me [this link](http://www.lifemag.com/Life/pictday/wppa03.html) last week, with a picture of an elephant swimming. The photo was published in Life magazine with the following caption: > [@](#): > > a pachyderm around the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal–a site where elephants, using their trunks as snorkels, reportedly swim up to 20 miles a day. Is that a load of bull (get it? bull elephant?) or is it true? It seems to me that an elephant would be too heavy and its legs too short to be able to do any effective swimming. On the other hand, a hippopotamus can swim, and it has short stubby legs too, so who knows? ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2000, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elephants-really-swim/23375/2 "2000-06-24T01:31:36Z")
According to [this site](http://fiat.gslis.utexas.edu/~aristm/elephants.html): > [@](#): > > Elephants…like to swim. [Here](http://www.anatomy.usyd.edu.au/danny/usenet/sci.anthropology.paleo/archive/october-1995/1235.html)’s a thread on another MB indicating less than universal agreement. > [@](#): > > Elephants are terrestrial animals. The fact that they take a bath > \>occasionally doesn’t change that. > \> > \>Alex Duncan > \>Dept. of Anthropology > \>University of Texas at Austin > \>Austin, TX 78712-1086 > \>512-471-4206 > \>aduncan@mail.utexas.edu > . > . > . > I thought someone posted that elephants had some kind of aquatic > ancestor? Didn’t you see that Alex? Perhaps some kind of seal and > elephants share a common ancestor (the elephant seal mabe?). > I would not be surprised to find that elephants have been aquatic at one > time. > There was a pepsi commercial recently that showed an elephant swimming > buy using his nose as sort of a snorkel. Apparently elephants can swim > quite well using this technique. Well, [here](http://www.nationalgeographic.com/infocentral/answer/gya0034.html) we have it from the _National Geographic_: > [@](#): > > Can elephants swim? > Surprisingly, the world’s largest land animals are excellent swimmers. Elephants even have built-in snorkels! As they submerge themselves they leave only the nostrils at the tips of their trunks above water. In this manner, elephants can swim for several miles. One source indicates that they have been known to cover up to 30 miles (48 kilometers) at speeds of 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers) per hour. Scientists have even observed elephants swimming to islands in lakes or even off seacoasts-perhaps the pachyderms’ version of a resort vacation. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2000, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elephants-really-swim/23375/3 "2000-06-24T01:43:01Z")
Yup. I’ve seen it on _National Geographic_ documentaries, and if there’s a more authentic source than that, I don’t know what it is. Besides here, of course. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2000, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elephants-really-swim/23375/4 "2000-06-24T01:49:29Z")
Elephants love water and I have seen several nature documentaries where a herd swims across a river including the babies, and they just put their snorkels up. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2000, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elephants-really-swim/23375/5 "2000-06-24T02:05:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* It seems to me that an elephant would be too heavy and its legs too short to be able to do any effective swimming. \*\* Well, weight is not very important - an elephant is far lighter than an average cruise ship. Density is about the same as any other mammal, so they wouldn’t sink. The only question is if they can keep the mouth or nose above water, but as pointed out, elephants have a huge advantage there. So it seems logical enough that they can swim. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2000, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elephants-really-swim/23375/6 "2000-06-24T11:44:35Z")
There was a TV commercial a few years back (admittedly not your best source for scientific information) that had some amazing underwater shots of a swimming elephant. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2000, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elephants-really-swim/23375/7 "2000-06-24T17:06:57Z")
**scr4** , you’re right as far as sinking goes, in that respect density is the issue, not weight. I guess I was thinking more of inertia, an animal that heavy would need to be a pretty good swimmer to propel itself through the water, and I didn’t see how it would be able to do that with the short legs of an elephant. Especially swimming for a distance of 20 miles! Thank you all for confirming the story, and especially your research efforts, **beatle** I’ll believe National Geographic (unless of course, “Cecil oblige”, I find evidence otherwise.) ---
**Author:** ![Beruang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@Beruang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beruang)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2000, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elephants-really-swim/23375/8 "2000-06-24T18:03:56Z")
## from beatle’s response: quote: I thought someone posted that elephants had some kind of aquatic ancestor? * * * Not to my knowledge. The evolution of the elephant from a small, “pig-like” animal (not r4eally a pig) is pretty well documented. Elephants share a common ancestor with manatees / dugongs / sea cows, but I am 99% certain that ancestor was terrestrial. I don’t know of any aquatic mammals that gave rise to terrestrial lineages. I’m not even sure aquatic mammals have been around long enough to do so. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2000, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elephants-really-swim/23375/9 "2000-06-24T20:12:50Z")
The closest living relatives to the two species of elephants are the sea cows, manatees, and their ilk. I’ll take Beruang’s word on it that the common ancestor was terrestrial. Another point that nobody else has mentioned: Elephants are capable of splaying their toes significantly to increase foot area. This is useful both for walking on mud, to avoid sinking in, and while swimming. As an aside, is there any mammal that can’t swim at all? ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2000, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elephants-really-swim/23375/10 "2000-06-24T20:30:52Z")
Darn it, why did you ask that? Now, I have to go poking for references. “Chimpanzees cannot swim”: [http://www.animalsoftherainforest.com/chimpanzee.htm](http://www.animalsoftherainforest.com/chimpanzee.htm) - this claim appears many places. I also find a factoid claiming that giraffes can’t swim. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2000, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elephants-really-swim/23375/11 "2000-06-24T20:42:05Z")
Oh, and let me bring up the nine-banded armadillo again: it normally sinks, and often crosses creeks by holding its breath and walking along the bottom. It can also inflate its stomach and intestines with air to allow it to float. Apparently other armadillo species can’t do this, and can’t swim: [http://www.houstonzoo.org/mammals/pages/armadill.htm](http://www.houstonzoo.org/mammals/pages/armadill.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2000, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elephants-really-swim/23375/12 "2000-06-24T23:11:15Z")
OK, I guess I can buy the girrafe (how often does a giraffe encounter water deep enough that it’d need to?) and the armadillo (dense, short legs), but chimps? One would think that they’re close enough to humans to be able to swim the same way. Maybe they just don’t swim naturally, but could (theoretically) be taught? I’m also a bit leary of that link you posted about chimanzees-- It says a little further down the page that they were the first animals in space. Laika the dog (Russian) had the American chimps beat. ---
**Author:** ![Jois](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ea666f/32.png) [@Jois](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jois)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2000, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elephants-really-swim/23375/13 "2000-06-25T00:11:53Z")
Big old knuckle walking apes aren’t supposed to be able to swim either. Just another one of those times when you wish you could have been there. Ho’d have the nerve to push the ape into the pool? ---
**Author:** ![mipsman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mipsman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mipsman)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2000, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elephants-really-swim/23375/14 "2000-06-25T04:05:38Z")
There are Pleistocene dwarf elephant remains on Santa Cruz Island off Santa Barbara. Santa Cruz Island has not been attached to the mainland for at least 15 million years (and probably never has been.) The Santa Barbara Channel is deep. So unless these elephants’ ancestors floated over hanging on to some driftwood, they had at least a several mile swim, even at the lower sea levels of the Pleistocene. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2000, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elephants-really-swim/23375/15 "2000-06-25T17:22:58Z")
Some followup: “apes cannot swim” in google turns up a plethora of references that say: 1 - gorillas can’t swim 2 - siamangs and gibbons can’t swim 3 - orangutans can’t swim 4 - chimpanzees can’t swim 5 - great apes in general can’t swim, while some species of monkeys can. Some of the chimpanzee references say it’s because they have very low body fat and don’t float: [http://www.bornfree.org.uk/primup30.htm](http://www.bornfree.org.uk/primup30.htm) This would mean that they couldn’t learn to unless you fitted them with water wings or a life jacket. I wonder if they’d be able to swim in the Dead Sea? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2000, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elephants-really-swim/23375/16 "2000-06-25T20:00:13Z")
I seem to recall somewhere reading about a particular wild orangutang under study who actually did figure out how to swim, and taught her entire tribe (troop? What do you call a group of apes?). If I recall correctly, it was on an island near Japan, and I think I read about it in my high school AP biology textbook. I’ll accept that most apes can’t float motionless due to their greater proportion of muscle, but if we’re talking about actual swimming, rather than floating, the stronger apes should have an advantage over Man. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2000, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elephants-really-swim/23375/17 "2000-06-25T20:08:00Z")
Yes, there WAS a commercial (I THINK it was for COcoa-cola) that featured a swimming elephant- and the footage was not faked. Somewhere in Asia, the COke people found a guy with a swimming elephant who performed for tourists. The story gets stranger: after seeing the elephant swim, the Coke advertising folks paid the owner, and set up a date for the film crew to come and shoot the elephant swimming. The owner told them “That day is no good. It’s a Sunday. The elephant doesn’t work on Sunday.” The advertising men were impatient and said, “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s an ANIMAL, for crying out loud. He doesn’t know what day of the week it is.” The owner insisted that SUnday was the elephant’s day off and he wouldn’t work on Sunday, but was happy to let the crew come out on SUnday and see for themselves. Well, the crew came out… and sure enough, the elephant wouldn’t go in the water. The elephant had gotten used to a schedule of 6 days swimming, followed by a day of rest, and would NOT swim on Sunday. The crew came back on Monday, and sure enough… the elephant swam, and they got the commercial in one take. ---
**Author:** ![Beruang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@Beruang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beruang)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2000, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elephants-really-swim/23375/18 "2000-06-28T14:36:38Z")
Chronos: Orangutans are native to Borneo, which is split among Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei (sp?). It’s not particularly close to Japan – unless this was a troop (I’ll go with that word until I’m told better) at a Japanese zoo or something. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2000, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elephants-really-swim/23375/19 "2000-06-28T16:52:24Z")
"History of the Japanese Macaques Hot Tubbing Behavior: In 1963, a young female monkey called Mukubili ventured into a hot spring to retrieve a scattering of soybeans. Soon other monkeys began to enter the springs, a behavior adopted over the years by the entire troop, which now regularly retreats to the 43 degrees C (109 degrees F) hot springs to escape winter cold. At first the behavior caught on primarily among young monkeys and their mothers, then gradually spread through the troop. Other troops have adopted their own cultural patterns, such as potato washing and learning to swim in the ocean." From: [http://www.cabrillo.cc.ca.us/~crsmith/fall99/macaque1.html](http://www.cabrillo.cc.ca.us/~crsmith/fall99/macaque1.html) The Japanese macaque is commonly known as the Snow Monkey. Three-toed sloths, which I am told I closely resemble, have been known to cross large rivers by crawling along the bottom. They cannot swim, but their extremely slow metabolisms allow them to stay under water for a quarter of an hour or more. Of course, they don’t walk all that fast, either. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2000, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elephants-really-swim/23375/20 "2000-06-28T17:00:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > > Three-toed sloths, which I am told I closely resemble, have been known to cross large rivers by crawling along the bottom. They cannot swim, but their extremely slow metabolisms allow them to stay under water for a quarter of an hour or more. Of course, they don’t walk all that fast, either. > \*\* This is fascinating! Is there a cite (or a website) for this that I get more info re this behavior? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-elephants-really-swim/23375.md?page=2)