Temperature Effects on Elephants

When summer hits, I dread jogging outside. But a study finds that elephants can be in true danger in the heat. As creatures get bigger, they have smaller surface-area-to-body-volume ratios. Fully grown Asian elephants thus pack a lot of mass into a body with a relatively small surface area. And surface area limits how much body heat you can dissipate. For the study, two female elephants in the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans walked around a half-mile track under various conditions. The outdoor temperature during these sessions ranged from a chilly 8 degrees Celsius to a scorching 35 degrees.