Elephant wrinkles can tell us if they're left or right trunked

Wheee! Elephants love to spray water - but did you know they can be lefties and righties?

Are you left-handed or right-handed?

Well, experts have found a way to work out if elephants are left or right 'trunked' by looking at the wrinkles in their skin.

Elephants use their big trunks to help them with everyday tasks, like picking branches up to munch on or drinking water from a river.

Their trunks are used a bit like our hands. And like our hands, they have one side that often works better than the other.

How was the study done?

Let's get a closer look at those wrinkles...

In a study published in the Royal Society Open Science, Andrew Shultz and his team looked at what we can learn from elephant wrinkles.

They found that wrinkles tended to appear under the side of the trunk that was used the most, because of how the elephant would bend to get certain items.

The elephant's whiskers also are slightly shorter on this side, because of how often it brushes against things.

And just like humans, elephants get more wrinkly as they age!

How does an elephant trunk work?

Nom nom nom... tasty leaves...

The elephant trunk is very different from any of the limbs we have on our human body.

It sits above the mouth, like where our nose sits, but it's used as a facial limb to pick things up like food and water. It also senses things, and is used to feel.

The trunk can actually peel a banana - but not in the way we humans do. Elephants use more of a squishing motion to get the things they need.

Elephant trunks can also function a bit like a vacuum cleaner, sucking up small bits of food and taking it to the mouth.