# musical Elephant trunk?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-elephant-trunk/335005>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 10, 2005, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-elephant-trunk/335005 "2005-12-10T04:28:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Thinktank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Thinktank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thinktank)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2005, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-elephant-trunk/335005/1 "2005-12-10T04:28:08Z")

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I titled myself _Thinktank_ so this is what you get. I’ve got no idea what brought this to my mind, but I started thinking again and the spinner landed on elephant trunks I guess…

Anyway, Elephants are capable of making their trademark trumpet sound because of their trunks are much like tubes in which the air passes through right?

But elephants can do lots of things with their trunks like pick up food to eat, spray water or even move tree trunks out their way which proves they have a very complicated muscle system in there.

My point? Well, I was wondering if it might be possible for elephants to use their trunks in a more refined musical way? surely with such a complex muscle system they’ve got the basic ingredients any trumpet might; just seems to me like a control issue.

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**Author:** ![Thinktank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Thinktank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thinktank)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2005, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-elephant-trunk/335005/2 "2005-12-10T20:18:16Z")

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What? No Animal scientists available? 🙂

Am I really so “original”? 😃

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**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2005, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-elephant-trunk/335005/3 "2005-12-11T13:00:46Z")

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> [@Thinktank](#):
>
> Am I really so “original”? 😃

Hey, I know the feeling.

Although, as a matter of fact, there _is_ some record of Elephants making “music” with their trunks…just [not _A cappella._](http://www.mulatta.org/Thaielephantorch.html)

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**Author:** ![Thinktank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Thinktank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thinktank)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2005, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-elephant-trunk/335005/4 "2005-12-11T23:05:05Z")

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Hey Rancloth,  
Thanks for the simpathy post, makes me feel a little less hurt, heh.

You’d think with all the know-it-alls on this forum someone would have stopped to think about elephant trunks… ladies? lol …my apologies couldn’t resist