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Cut and paste right from Flashes With its five-ton elephants of Andaman Island in the Bay of Bengal, are capable of swimming long distances without any problems. Each day, after a hard day of work in wood, elephants swimming back from island to island led by their caregivers.
Incredibly, the elephants are magnificent swimmers and have great endurance underwater. Immerse your entire body and use their proboscis to respirator way, allowing them to dive for miles with great ease. His skill is such that scientists believe that the first elephants arrived in Sri Lanka from India did the swim.

But why should this ability of elephants under water? Scientists now believe that elephants left behind aquatic life for about 30 million years ago and since then have continued to adapt to terrestrial life. According to some studies, the elephant could fall to the sea cow and among their closest relatives with creatures like the manatee.

Analyzing the embryos of various species, Ann Gaeth, University of Melbourne, Australia, has discovered the presence of a trace ancestral elephant embryos, a small tube known as nephrostome, which only have animals living in water. Other specialists such as John B. West, University of San Diego, believe they have discovered the reason why elephants are capable of diving to considerable depths without damage to their lungs, as with other mammals. According to West, elephants have replaced the normal pleural membrane layers of dense connective tissue that allow the lungs to withstand intense pressure.

South African photographer Steve Bloom has devoted several years of his life to follow the elephants of Andaman swimmers and the result was his book "Elephant", some of whose pictures you see on this post. Finally, in the following video of David Attenborough for the BBC, you can observe the reaction of African elephants to find water after months of dry season. A real marvel.

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